Optus announces CFO, CIO to depart weeks after Triple Zero failures
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The news: Optus has announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) Michael Venter and chief information officer (CIO) Mark Potter will leave the company weeks after the company revealed separate triple zero emergency contact outages.
The context: Venter will retire from the CFO role and leave the company’s board in early 2026, with Andy Giles Knopp to be brought in from Aussie Broadband as a replacement in April 2026.
Knopp has been chief financial officer at Aussie Broadband since early 2024. He also has divisional CFO experience from his time at Telstra and was previously CEO and CFO at forestry business OneFortyOne.
Potter will leave Optus in March 2026. Replacement chief information officer John McInerney will start in November 2025.
McInerney was most recently chief information officer and head of transformation at One NZ. He also has senior technology roles at Telstra, HP and NBN Co.
In mid-September, Optus revealed that three people had died during a triple-zero failure. This failure was blamed on a failed firewall upgrade that was not in line with procedures.
A second failure, stemming from a mobile tower outage in the Illawarra region of NSW was revealed in late September.
What they said: “On behalf of the Optus Board, I want to extend our sincere thanks to Michael Venter for his service as both interim CEO prior to Stephen Rue’s appointment, and most recently as an Optus Board Director,” Optus chair John Arthur said.
“Michael has brought deep financial expertise, strategic insight, and a steady hand during a period of significant change for the company. I wish him all the very best in his retirement.”
The source: Optus media release
