TalkTalk CEO Tristia Harrison is to step aside for a boardroom role after the planned breakup of the Salford telecoms giant next year, The Telegraph reports.
Harrison, who took over as CEO in 2017, will lead a new transition board that will oversee the process of carving TalkTalk into separate consumer, business and wholesale divisions. This process is expected to be completed by next March, when Harrison will reportedly take up a seat on the board of the wholesale unit.
TalkTalk, which was initially created from the merger of Opal Telecom and Carphone Warehouse 20 years ago and spun off as an independent entity in 2010, is currently lumbered with a £1bn+ debt and has already put its B2B division up for sale in a bid to raise a potential £150m capital.
Fellow North West tech firm Daisy Group is currently the favourite for that purchase after Sky’s initial interest appeared to wane.
TalkTalk is expected to make around 50 redundancies as a result of the break-up, while the company plans to cut its sales and marketing spend by 40% as it focuses on shoring up its balance sheet.
TalkTalk’s new wholesale platform will be led by Tom O’Hagan, founder of Virtual1, which the company acquired last year. Adam Dunlop, formerly managing director of TalkTalk Direct, will take over as chief executive of the consumer division.
