Back in October 2021, Telstra chairman John Mullen reassured investors chief executive Andy Penn had the complete support of the board. Now Penn has been dumped by that same board and Vicki Brady, who is seen by many as a far more capable operator, anointed as the new CEO.
The move comes as Telstra desperately struggles to work out where their future lies, with insiders telling ChannelNews that their 5G roll out has been a “colossal failure”.

Andy Penn Telstra CEO with his dogs before being dumped
We have also been told that a former Prime Minister was told that Penn was set to be sacked a week ago by a member of the Telstra board.
Penn’s replacement Vicki Brady is a former Optus executive who has been described as a “breath of fresh air, a woman who knows the communication business, and a person who will bring about the change that Telstra desperately needs” said a former senior industry executive, who has worked with her in the past.
Recently, Penn admitted to the board that he is struggling to get a return on investment from Telstra’s 5G network which is why a deal with TPG Vodafone in regional Australian was critical to his business plan.
Worth an estimated $1.8 billion over a decade, Penn knew that he faced hurdles to the deal and when announced, arch rival Singtel Optus urged the competition regulator to block the infrastructure deal between its two major rivals – Telstra and TPG Telecom – warning it risks creating a 5G monopoly in regional areas.
Insiders claim that Penn was struggling even before the TPG Telecom deal was conceived, and despite cuts to Telstra’s head count, the organisation is still seen as being top heavy in management who are failing to deliver new revenue initiatives.
A source close to Penn and the Telstra board said: ”Categorically Penn was sacked. The Chairman Mullen stuck with him and supported him, but he failed to convince other directors that his business plans would work.”
Penn has been in the top job for seven years, after taking over from David Thodey.
Vicki Brady will take over on September 1, becoming the telco’s first female chief executive.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn and wife Kallie Blauhorn. VIPs arrive for high society wedding and boading a boat at Walsh Bay.
During his time at Telstra, Penn has surrounded himself with “Yes Andy” PR people who have taken Penn on various exercises. We had Telstra Health, his ill-fated attack on the NBN, and then there was M Wave for homes.
Penn, who started with Telstra as CFO in 2012 and was appointed CEO in 2015, was punting on consumers flocking to 5G in their homes in an effort to take on the NBN broadband market. It’s failed to happen.
Neither was he able to get a premium for 5G, with consumers in most cases happy with the speeds that the Telstra 4G network was delivering.
Now he is facing more price rises for 5G equipment due to shipping and component price rises.
Brady faces the task of sorting out whether Penn’s T25 strategy, which he described as a “strategy for growth” is actually sustainable.
Will Brady move to buy out Foxtel, an entity that they own 35%, in as opposed to Penn’s idea of buying out Fetch TV?
ChannelNews understands that Telstra management could adopt a brand-new enterprise system that Boost Mobile is currently rolling out in the USA with Verizon called Mobile X.
Telstra insiders claim that Brady likes the new system, while Penn was against it because “he was more interested in achieving EBITDA growth so that he could boost his bonuses.”
By using machine learning, carriers can gain intelligence on the way that consumers use their bandwidth and tailor better packages for them, via the intelligence that Mobil X delivers.
“All Penn has been interested in is raising prices and he was lucky that when he raised prices his competitors also raised prices on their 5G offering. There has been little if any really new initiatives from Telstra”, insiders told ChannelNews.
The massive cuts that Penn initiated to drive the bottom line has given successor Vicki Brady a chance of delivering something shareholders haven’t seen for some time.
She is a product marketing person who has worked with partners such as Boost and JB Hi Fi, who have been responsible for a lot of Telstra’s mobile success. Boost is also a major Telstra Wholesale partner.
What the board has done is effectively stopped Penn from rolling out his big T25 plan that he announced late last year.
Penn won’t be given the opportunity to deliver it with Brady, who is seen as being more brand and product focused, now given the job of working out what she wants to keep and what will be dropped.
Last year, Penn claimed he was dropping excess mobile data charges, improving customer service while making Telstra easier to deal with. He moved to take back Telstra’s franchised stores which are having to compete with JB Hi Fi.
Telstra stores have been a basket case for the carrier with overseas executives bought in to revamp them with little success.
Seen as places for people to go to when their smartphone is not working, customers are often left waiting to get face to face with a Telstra staff member.
At the start of COVID, Telstra’s customer service operation came to a standstill, after the Philippines shut down their operation.
His vision to turn Telstra into “a world-class technology company that empowers people to connect” went pear-shaped and so has Telstra’s vision to be a player in the B2B market where the carrier would sell apps such as Office 365 to businesses.
At one stage, Penn had visions of Telstra becoming the next Google.
Now he is out, and Brady is now facing a massive task, with many in the industry claiming she should have been appointed to the role years ago and that she is more than capable of taking Telstra in a new direction.
This is the start of a new era for Telstra. They have to quickly repair their brand image, while rolling out new products and initiatives that consumers and business will invest in.