Spark New Zealand says Matt Crockett, its "chief turnaround officer", will leave in the middle of the year at the completion of Spark New Zealand's Turnaround for Fletcher Building, where he will head the the heavy building products division.
Spark MD Simon Moutter says, “I brought Matt back to Spark New Zealand in mid-2013 to lead a centralised turnaround programme, aimed at delivering significant cost and business improvements across the business. By any measure, Matt has done a tremendous job.
“The Turnaround Programme has been one of the largest programmes of its kind seen in New Zealand and has been a key strategic pillar in the ongoing transformation of Spark New Zealand. It is delivering significant financial benefits in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars annually and is helping create the headroom that has allowed Spark New Zealand not only to reduce prices to offer customers more value, but also is enabling Spark New Zealand to invest in new growth areas such as Lightbox and Cloud IT.
The restructure has also seen the loss of around 1700 jobs.
Like new CEO Simon Moutter - who returned to the fold after a period running Auckland Airport - Mr Crockett made his bones during Theresa Gattung's reign.
During his last tour of duty, the Australian was head of Telecom Wholesale and International, as well as sitting on the board of the 50% Spark owned, Bermuda-incorporated Southern Cross Cable Network.
Mr Crockett, who was working for APN at the time Spark's top job was up for grabs, was rumoured to be in the running for CEO.
His is the second high profile departure announced this month. Earlier, another CEO candidate, Chris Quin, said recently he will leave Spark by mid-year.
Mr Quin, CEO of the company's home, business and mobile division, is still lining up a new role.
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Matt Crockett leaving Spark for Fletcher Building
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