PAST POST – 27 May 2009 A kindred Sol « l'apostrophe catastrophe

PAST POST – 27 May 2009 A kindred Sol

01Nov09

Wow, so much has been going on in the news where to start? From H1N1 (oink, oink) to delightful spin about Mr Turnbull’s net worth and ‘The Voice’ coming back to entertain us again, I’ve been learning about the tips and tricks of good PR writing.
Today’s lesson: the biography. I’m going to give it a go.

An incredibly kindred Sol
On May 26, Former Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo warmly thanked Australia for his experiences at Telstra and the handsome addition to his retirement fund by way of commenting on our nation’s “backward” attitudes. Poor Sol, he felt like he was “stepping back in time” when in Australia.

According to Telecom TV, Mr Trujillo leaves Telstra operationally strong but strategically weak. A contentious point of Mr Trujillo’s tenure at Telstra was Telstra’s bungling of the bid to build and operate Australia’s National Broadband Network. Whether the Telstra bid was intended to fail in order to bring the government into line with what Telstra thought was best, or whether it was a genuine mistake may never be known – but a botch it was indeed.

What I believe nailed the figurative coffin for Mr Trujillo was the radical nature of this attempt to thwart Canberra which failed miserably. While Australians are generally appreciative of creative ‘larrikin’ nuances in opposing bureaucracy, it needs to be done by someone who lives ‘larrikin.’ Unfortunately Mr Trujillo doesn’t and wouldn’t want to.

Another major achievement of Mr Trujillo’s was when Telstra’s share price dropped from A$5.07 to A$3.18 and over A$15 billion of shareholder value was apparently destroyed.

Mr Trujillo was the first native born Hispanic-American to serve as CEO of a
Fortune 150 company.

Mr Trujillo has provided policy, trade and economic advice to international
and domestic governments, academic institutions and think-tanks including:
Governor of the World Economic Forum, trustee of Boston College and UCLA’s
School of Public Policy, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, and
trade policy advisor to the Clinton and Bush administrations.

He is now gone and not likely to come back anytime soon. Farewell amigo, you will be sadly missed.