Two senior Optus executives step down weeks after triple-0 outage

Optus has announced two of its senior executives will be stepping down as the telco giant continues to face backlash over its recent triple-0 outage.

In a statement, Optus said Michael Venter will depart from his role as chief financial officer as part of his “planned retirement” and will also no longer be director of the Optus board.

He is set to be replaced by Andy Giles Knopp in April 2026.

Mark Potter, Optus’ chief information officer, will also step down from his role, and the company announced John McInerney as his replacement, beginning in November this year.

This comes after Optus undertook a network upgrade in September this year, which led to a triple-0 outage that was linked to three deaths.

Optus board chair John Arthur said Mr Venter had 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,” he added.

Mr Venter had also served as interim CEO before the appointment of Stephen Rue in November last year.

Mr Rue said Mr Venter had decided to retire from executive life to pursue a “portfolio career” and thanked him for his service.

Optus’ latest outage is the subject of an internal probe and a Federal communications watchdog investigation, while calls for stronger oversight including the proper implementation of a triple-zero custodian have rung out.

It was recently revealed the telco sent two emails about the incident to a recently retired public service email address, where they were not discovered until the following day.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised the Optus triple-0 outage and the role of its parent company Singtel with Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong, who has privately offered his condolences to the families of the three people whose deaths were connected with the outage.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Anika Wells has met with the bosses of Australia’s three major telcos in Canberra and introduced new legislation to underpin the powers of a triple-0 guardian.

The custodian will be able to demand information from telco companies so it can monitor triple-0 performance and identify risks and respond more quickly to outages.

Optus in June announced it had hired Pieter van der Merwe as chief security and risk officer from December this year.