Telecom mum on Reynolds ‘payout’
Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds will leave the company at the end of June with a secret payout.
Spokesman Ian Bonnar said there would be ‘‘some form’’ of payout, but Telecom would not reveal details until it was obliged to in its annual report due out towards the end of the year.
The tall Scotsman is believed to have earned about $25 million during his fiveyear stint, during which he presided over what was a world-first structural separation of the once state-owned incumbent telecommunications firm. However, his enduring image may be flyfishing while apologising for outages on Telecom’s XT mobile network in 2010.
Bonnar said Reynolds was not available for media interviews and was not scheduled to give any more speeches or presentations before his departure.
Chen Palmer employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-geluk said it was possible Reynolds may have negotiated a confidential ‘‘parachute’’ clause when he joined Telecom in 2007 that could entitle him to six months’ or even a year’s sal- ary – an annual base pay worth $1.75m.
Hornsby-geluk said such a confidential clause would not be unusual.
‘‘The term ‘payout’ suggests that it is something more than simply a bonus or incentive payment and that it is some form of departure arrangement that the parties have agreed to.’’
In a statement to the NZX, Reynolds said he was proud to leave Telecom in a healthy state. However, some firms were still seething over what they said was a poorly communicated glitch with Xtra’s email service that meant thousands of emails were missed earlier in the week.
Telecom’s next boss, Simon Moutter, a chief operating officer of the company during Theresa Gattung’s tenure, will start in September, while the head of the company’s Gen-i division, Chris Quin, will fill in until then.