Telstra was recently welcomed back to the table on the NBN discussions after it was excluded from the tender process in December. Mr Thodey has been a senior executive at Telstra for eight years. He previously was chief executive of IBM's Australian and New Zealand operations. He said he was delighted with the appointment, which will commence after Mr Trujillo returns to the US on June 30, and will continue the five-year transformation implemented by Mr Trujillo in 2005. "Our strategy remains unchanged: to continue to provide customers with world-class products and services," Mr Thodey said in a statement. "The key to Telstra continuing to win and to serve customers will be finishing our transformation that started nearly four years ago.