Head of XT resigns

Telecom has announced its director of mobile Paul Hamburgerwill leave the company when his contract expires in July.

“With the launch and consolidation of XT behind us, Paul hasmade the choice to move on from Telecom at the end of his current contractperiod,” says chief executive Alan Gourdie in a statement.

Hamburger was responsible for product management, plans andpricing, handsets and supply chain, retail promotion and sales, as well asroaming partnerships and services.

Hamburger, who had been with the company 18 months, lived twoweeks in New Zealand and two weeks Florida with his family. Telecomspokesperson Mark Watts says he “lived his own proposition”, commuting betweenthe US and New Zealand, flying around the world to trade shows, and all thetime keeping in touch by mobile.

When asked if Hamburger’s failure to secure a carrierlicense for the iPhone had contributed to his departure, Watts told TR that Telecom doesn’t comment onspeculation about handset deals. However, the lack of the iPhone in the XTrange of devices has been a constant bugbear for analysts who never fail to askthe about it at Telecom’s quarterly financial briefings.

Hamburger is the second Telecom executive to leave thecompany following the XT Network outages. In February Telecom’s ChiefTransformation Officer Frank Mount resigned. Like Hamburger, he too was one ofTelecom’s executive imports and has returned to the US.

Pictured: Paul Hamburger (right) in conversation with Forsyth Barr senior investment analyst Guy Hallwright at the TUANZ After 5s in August last year.