THE corporate brawling of his reign was played out in public, but former Telstra boss Sol Trujillo has slipped away from the company and the country very quietly.
He leaves behind thousands of bruised shareholders and takes with him an expected $31 million.
Not a bad earn for three years and 10 months work, but then that's the Sol Trujillo way, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The news was released yesterday, with the company saying chief executive-elect David Thodey had taken the top job at Australia's biggest telco following the return to the US of former CEO Mr Trujillo.
His departure was a month earlier than expected. Mr Trujillo flew out of Australia last Thursday, bound for his home in a ritzy gated estate in San Diego. The previous night he dined at Crown Casino, Melbourne, with his former executives and the ousted Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie. Maybe the consummate salesman decided it would be better to be out of Australia if his successor began laying blame for the company's problems at the feet of former management. Certainly negative publicity travels, and Mr Trujillo is facing a fierce battle back in the US to retain his seat on the board of retail giant Target.
There are investors stateside who apparently think 15 years on the board is long enough. Here in Australia it has been the opposite story. Mr Trujillo started on July 1, 2005, with a five-year vision to transform the moribund former government entity into a sleek paragon of modern telecommunications. Less than halfway through 2009 and he's gone. So what happened? Certainly his way of doing business rankled Down Under. He stacked the company with Americans perceived (??????) by some to be mates (THEY WERE MATES) . He was always at war with the regulators and the Government.
He cut more than 8000 jobs in three years and complaints surged almost 250 per cent.
And he earned huge sums of cash from shareholders but purchased almost no shares. When Telstra announced in February this year that Mr Trujillo intended to leave, the company said he would work until June 30. But by terminating his employment during the notice period, not only does Mr Trujillo bring to an early end what presently appears to be the biggest failure of his career, he also increases the size of his payout. That's because Telstra is obliged to pay him an additional $3 million severance if he leaves before he completed his notice period. "Our members are pretty angry that he has cut and run with an enormous pay packet," the Australian Shareholders Association's Stephen Matthews said yesterday.
"And he's left before the transformation has been completed, the transformation (then) chairman Donald Mcgauchie said Trujillo was brought in for." When he was in Australia, the workaholic divided his time between Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney he rented level 24 of The Georgia building in Kent Street. It is the only apartment on level 24 as The Georgia offers only entire-floor living. Such premium digs, though, are reserved for those sufficiently well paid to afford the $2500 to $3000 per week rents. Mr Trujillo presided over a 40 per cent decline in the share price and so alienated the Federal Government that last January it cut Telstra out of its national broadband initiative, effectively handing $2 billion in revenue to the company's rivals.
He inflated Telstra's net debt by 40 per cent to more than $16 billion, meaning shareholders now receive Telstra's famous dividend from borrowings as opposed to cash flows. -
The Daily Telegraph 20 May 2009 Full story here
In a deal that is ONLY catagorised as 'money for mates'. He does not leave anyone he was GIVEN this money.
A REAL underperformer that was rewarded at the expense of the public.
Telstra FRAUDULENTLY adds conversations to phone bills to pay for Mr. Solomons expenses.
This shows how in the corporate world if you have the connections you can rape the consumer.
Solomon did NOT do this by himself, he was help by his mates, Board of Directors, and the government. All these people LET him get away with it, so he could take the heat.
At the end of the the this is POLITICS at the top level of business which is supported by the law.
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