Telus announced changes to its senior leadership team on Wednesday.Mario Beauregard/The Canadian Press
Telus Corp. T-T is regaining one long-tenured leader and losing another as part of the company’s first reorganization under its new chief executive officer, Victor Dodig.
Veteran telecom executive David Fuller will rejoin the company as group president of Telus Communications. Meanwhile, Zainul Mawji – once considered a strong contender for the CEO role – will depart after 25 years with the company, Telus said in a release Wednesday morning.
The changes represent the beginning of a shift Bay Street is expecting in both leadership and strategy, as Mr. Dodig aims to reorient the company. He comes on board after a quarter-century of leadership under former CEO Darren Entwistle, who departed at the end of June.
Analysts have suggested Mr. Dodig could cut the dividend, which currently yields close to 12 per cent and has been seen by some as being a drag on the balance sheet, or divest a range of non-core assets. The company is already aiming to monetize its Telus Health division, though it has yet to announce a deal.
The C-suite changes announced Wednesday will put the company’s core telecommunications division in the hands of a man known for operational decision-making. Mr. Fuller, who spent 15 years at Telus before leaving in 2019, will oversee all of the company’s core telecom business units, including its consumer and business-facing segments.
Previously, Mr. Fuller held senior roles in Telus’s consumer, small business and marketing divisions. He worked closely with Joe Natale when the pair was at Telus, and when Mr. Natale became CEO of Rogers Communications Inc., Mr. Fuller followed him and became president of the company’s wireless division.
He departed less than a year later, when Mr. Natale was ousted from Rogers after a tumultuous battle for control of the telecom.
Meanwhile, Ms. Mawji is leaving her role as president of consumer solutions, having held leadership positions across corporate development, strategy, marketing, IT, capital management and technology operations for more than two decades.
Telus also said Wednesday that Navin Arora will remain at the company as group president of global platform businesses, maintaining his oversight of Telus Health, Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods, and Telus Digital, and will also take on responsibility for enterprise-level corporate strategy, the company’s venture capital division and its data centre strategy.
The changes will be effective Sept. 1.
Previous CEO Darren Entwistle had publicly named both Ms. Mawji and Mr. Arora as possible contenders to succeed him, although ultimately the role went to Mr. Dodig, who left the top job at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce last fall and had sat on the Telus board of directors for several years.
Telus said in the release that the changes were the “first step” in a strategy to transform the telecom business by improving customer service, realizing operational efficiencies and aligning capital to the highest margin products.
“As TELUS strengthens its financial foundation, sharpens operational focus, and drives profitable growth, these changes to our organizational structure and leadership ensure we are set up to deliver on that strategic plan,” Mr. Dodig said in the release.