Optus CEO Resigns Following Nationwide Outage and Data Breach Scandal

Interim CEO Michael Venter steps in as the telecom giant faces compensation claims and a class action lawsuit.

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned following a nationwide outage that left almost half of Australia disconnected for over 12 hours on November 8, 2023.
The outage caused transport delays, cut hospital phone lines, shut down payment systems, and blocked about 200 people from calling emergency services.
Rosmarin faced criticism over her response to the incident and revealed that thousands of Australians were pursuing the telecom for compensation.
Optus is also fighting a class action lawsuit from more than 100,000 current and former customers over a major data breach in September 2022, which affected 10 million people.
Optus CFO Michael Venter has been appointed as interim CEO while the firm searches for a replacement.