Organisational Culture
Optus CEO apologises for outage linked to deaths, refuses to step down
Stephen Rue apologises to lawmakers but says leadership change now would disrupt ongoing transformation efforts at the telecom operator.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue has issued a formal apology to Australian lawmakers following an emergency triple-zero (000) outage that has been linked to four deaths. Despite mounting calls for accountability, Rue told a Senate committee hearing that he does not intend to step down, arguing that another leadership change would undermine the company’s efforts to restore trust and strengthen its systems.
The incident, reported on 18 September, disrupted emergency services access for thousands of customers and reignited public scrutiny around Optus’ preparedness and crisis management capability. Rue, who took the top job barely a year ago after his predecessor stepped down amid a large-scale cyberattack and a separate network failure, acknowledged the gravity of the situation but stressed the need for continuity.
“There are questions about my role, but another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs or what our customers need,” Rue told the Senate. He added that the organisation is in the middle of a multi-year transformation and instability at the top could further compromise operational focus.
The company has already lost a few senior people recently, with CFO Michael Venter and Chief Information Officer Mark Potter due to leave early next year. This staff turnover shows just how huge the job is to fix the systems and change the culture after Optus' recent disasters, like the 2022 hack that leaked millions of customer records and the big outage last year that left users without service for hours.
Rue told lawmakers the emergency outage was caused by human error during a firewall upgrade, resulting in the failure to divert critical traffic. Regulators are continuing to review the incident as pressure builds for stronger telecom resilience standards across Australia’s emergency-response network.
The incident, reported on 18 September, disrupted emergency services access for thousands of customers and reignited public scrutiny around Optus’ preparedness and crisis management capability. Rue, who took the top job barely a year ago after his predecessor stepped down amid a large-scale cyberattack and a separate network failure, acknowledged the gravity of the situation but stressed the need for continuity.
“There are questions about my role, but another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs or what our customers need,” Rue told the Senate. He added that the organisation is in the middle of a multi-year transformation and instability at the top could further compromise operational focus.
The company has already lost a few senior people recently, with CFO Michael Venter and Chief Information Officer Mark Potter due to leave early next year. This staff turnover shows just how huge the job is to fix the systems and change the culture after Optus' recent disasters, like the 2022 hack that leaked millions of customer records and the big outage last year that left users without service for hours.
Rue told lawmakers the emergency outage was caused by human error during a firewall upgrade, resulting in the failure to divert critical traffic. Regulators are continuing to review the incident as pressure builds for stronger telecom resilience standards across Australia’s emergency-response network.
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