Telstra said that Ashley Lazaro - who has been acting in the role - would continue to do so, and a permanent appointment would be announced shortly.

Telstra COO, Michael Rocca, said: "Over seven years at Telstra, John made an enormous contribution to changing our IT environment in many ways, including as executive director information technology from mid-2007, driving the delivery of simplified customer relationship and improved billing solutions, Siebel and Keenan.

"Since taking on the role of CIO and group managing director IT in 2008, John has also driven innovation through the IT group, including streamlining the number of our strategic IT partners and simplifying sourcing arrangements."

He added that Telstra was reviewing its IT structure and effectiveness, saying: "[We] continue to integrate our network and information technology expertise - including an integrated strategy for managing network and data centres within Telstra Operations.

"The lines between communications technologies - IT and network - are converging and this will continue as network virtualisation becomes more and more common."

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