Board of Directors

David Thodey - Chairman
David Thodey is Chief Executive Officer of Telstra.

David joined Telstra in April 2001 as Group Managing Director of Telstra Mobiles, overseeing significant industry change with the mass take up of mobiles and the introduction of digital technologies.

In December 2002, he was appointed Group Managing Director Telstra Enterprise and Government and was responsible for the company's large corporate, government and business customers in Australia, TelstraClear in New Zealand and Telstra's international sales division. At the helm of Telstra Enterprise and Government, David oversaw another period of significant industry change, with the rapid take up of IP and mobile broadband services over Telstra's Next IP and Next G¿ networks.

Before joining Telstra, David was Chief Executive Officer of IBM Australia/New Zealand and previously held several senior executive positions in marketing and sales with IBM across the Asia Pacific. He originally started at IBM as a systems engineer and has retained a passion for technology throughout his career.

David was born in Perth and is currently the Chairman of Basketball Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and English from Victoria University in New Zealand. David attended the Kellogg Post-Graduate School General Management Program at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Bruce Akhurst
Bruce Akhurst is the Group Managing Director of Telstra Media Services and Chief Executive Officer of Telstra's advertising and media business, Sensis.

Bruce also has management responsibility for Telstra's digital media strategy, which includes Telstra's 50 per cent interest in Pay TV company, FOXTEL. More recently in March 2005, Bruce was also appointed Chairman of the FOXTEL board.

As Chief Executive Officer of Sensis, he has responsibility for driving the sustainable growth of the company and the continuing evolution of Sensis' highly successful advertising and search operations.

Prior to his appointment as CEO Sensis on 1 January 2005, Bruce was GMD of Telstra Wholesale, BigPond® and Media Services, in addition to being Telstra Group General Counsel and Sensis Chairman. Bruce joined Telstra as General Counsel in late 1996 and was appointed Group Managing Director Legal and Regulatory in early 1999.

Before joining Telstra, Bruce was the Managing Partner at a national law firm. He has an Economics Degree with Honours, as well as his legal qualification, and taught in the Faculty of Economics and Politics at Monash University before embarking on his legal career.

John Stanhope
John Stanhope was appointed to the role of Telstra's Chief Financial Officer and Group Managing Director of the company's Finance & Administration division in October 2003. He was appointed as an executive director of the Telstra Board in May 2009.

John is responsible for finance; treasury; risk management and assurance; corporate planning, reporting and analysis; business services; investor relations; corporate security and investigations the Office of the Company Secretary, procurement, billing and business improvement and analysis. John also managed Telstra's involvement in the Federal Government's T3 sale of Telstra shares.

John previously served as Director, Finance. In this role, which he assumed in 1995, he contributed to the T1 and T2 share sales, cost reduction programs, growth strategies, debt raising, capital management and organisational restructures.

Since joining Telstra in 1967, John has held a number of operational roles and more recently a range of senior financial management positions including General Manager, Strategy and Finance - Special Business Products; General Manager, Finance and Business Planning - Network Products; and Executive General Manager - Business Support Services.

He is chairman of the Business Coalition for Tax Reform, and was appointed to the Financial Reporting Council in 2006. He serves on the executive committee of the Group of 100.

John is a director of Telstra Super, Sensis, SouFun, ChinaM, Sharp Point and the Telstra Foundation, and was recently appointed to the AGL Energy board as a non-executive director. He is chairman of TelstraClear and CSL New World Mobility and alternate director for Foxtel.

Kate McKenzie
Kate McKenzie is the Group Managing Director of Telstra's Strategic Marketing division, which manages Telstra's corporate pricing, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, advertising and sponsorship functions. She has been in this role since 30 March 2009.

Prior to that, Kate was the Group Managing Director of the Telstra Wholesale business unit in Telstra, a position she held for a little over three years.

Kate joined Telstra in August 2004 as head of Telstra's regulatory group. Within a year she was promoted to the role of Deputy Group Managing Director for public policy and communication.

Before joining Telstra, Kate was Director-General of the Department of Commerce in New South Wales and previously had held a range of senior executive roles in government departments and offices.

Throughout her career Kate has been involved in management of the commercial impacts of complex policy issues including competition, energy reform, corporatisation and privatisation. Kate is widely recognised for her industry leadership, her championing of regulatory reform and is a respected commentator on telecommunications issues of national importance.

Kate has been a director of the Rail Corporation of New South Wales, and is currently a director of Sydney Water Corporation.

Kate holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees from the University of Sydney.