Big Australian turns to US for new CIO

BHP has continued to yank in Americans to take strategic executive positions. This time the Big Australian has recruited Cassandra Matthews from the PECO Energy Company in Philadelphia to become CIO, reporting to Brad Mills, the company's chief strategic officer. Before joining PECO, where she was vice president and CIO, Matthews worked as vice president of strategic business development and director of content and marketing for Europe Online in Luxembourg.

In her new role Down Under Matthews will be expected to oversee BHP's "e-enablement strategy" which aims to bring all transactions on to the Internet within two years. "Additionally, our strategy is directed at developing a knowledge-sharing environment across the company and facilitating an e-savvy workforce," explained CSO Mills.

Telstra trembles on Ides of November

It was once forecast in The Rust Report that November 4 would be when big moves began to be made at Telstra. It looks as if we were a little off the money - the moves began at a high level on November 1 when CEO Dr Ziggy Switkowski announced in an e-mail to the troops that Bill Scales, former head of the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, will join the carrier in a senior HR role. He will also assist the office of the CEO, Switkowksi said.

At the same time, Brian Pilbeam, who had headed Telstra's Olympic unit, has been appointed managing director of corporate relations, replacing Rob Cartwright.

The Rust Report has been led to believe more changes are coming as the CEO builds an executive team he can feel comfortable with.

Do you remember Linda?

Old timer's like The Rust Report will - provided their memories have not yet failed them -- no doubt remember vividly Linda Graham, who set up Microsoft in Australia in 1983 and kept a firm hand on the helm until 1988. As Linda Graham-McCann she has now taken her leave of Infomedia (whose CEO is Richard Graham) to become managing director of listed "adult products and entertainment company" Sharon Austen. Linda replaces Sharon Austen herself, who will become creative director. Simultaneously, investment banker Martin Greenberg has been appointed a non-executive director of Sharon AustenLinda's departure from Infomedia caused some changes there and the appointment of two new executives. Bryce Rayment has been recruited from Castrol Australia to become marketing manager, enabling the Infomedia sales and marketing roles to be separated. Linda Scott has been appointed human resources manager after co-ordinating the human resources activities at some Olympic venues during the Sydney 2000 Games. She has also worked for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Star City Casino and the Australian Postal Corporation.

Around the traps

Marcelle Anderson has resigned as a director of LibertyOne, although she will remain CEO of the embattled company.

Nava Networks, which is constructing a multi-terabit fibre optic network linking Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, has appointed Charles Jarvie CEO. He joined the company from Telecom New Zealand, where he had been involved with the Southern Cross cable network linking Australia, NZ and the US.

Industry identity Sean Howard has been appointed chairman of Waivcom Worldwide, which has also appointed merchant banker Laurie Horin to the board. David Ah Chee has resigned from the board.

Malcolm Spry has resigned from the board of E*Trade following his recent appointment as senior vice president of global communications at ACNielsen. He leaves for the US next January. His replacement on the E*Trade board has not been announced.

As expected, Antony Hing has resigned as managing director of CBD Online to rejoin Davnet in Hong Kong, and Tony Tregurtha, CEO of Halescom, has been appointed acting CEO of CBD. Halescom was recently acquired by CBD.

Johan van Jaarsveld has been appointed sales and marketing director of Solace. A spokesman said van Jaarsveld had held many senior positions within the industry, including group marketing manager for Global Technology and CEO of Global Technology Business Intelligence.

Paul Rushton has gone from Silicon Graphics, where he was in charge of marketing, and hasn't yet been replaced. Nor do we know where he's gone.

We know rumours are dangerous but this one is too good to leave out, even though we haven't been able to confirm it. Word is that today will see a mass exodus from CSC. We don't know who is likely to be shown the door, but we assume they are a few poor souls who were being kept on ice for when CSC won the Westpac outsourcing deal. It didn't.

It must be tough being a corporate PR person sometimes, especially when you work at Oracle and have to stamp out rumours that CEO Larry Ellison has left the company or possibly even died. This week's rumours that Ellison had gone and probably taken CFO Jeff Henley with him were untrue, but that didn't stop them dragging Oracle's share price down by more than $US1.50.

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