MEDIA STATEMENT

21 March, 2011

Telecom’s Christchurch Emergency Recovery project in full swing

Telecom announced today it has appointed Trish Keith, currently GM Customer Experience, to lead Telecom’s dedicated Christchurch recovery team.

Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds says the creation of a dedicated recovery team is vital to manage the short and long term recovery work in the aftermath of the 22 February earthquake.

“Telecom is one of Christchurch’s biggest employers and it’s hugely important to us that we support our people in Christchurch in getting back to work and look at long term options for our people and operations there.

“Trish has been a senior manager at Telecom, based in Christchurch, for 20 years and is a Cantabrian born-and-bred. I can’t think of anyone in our business better suited to managing this important project.

“Trish will report directly to the Telecom executive team as her work progresses,” Dr Reynolds added.

“A number of Telecom’s buildings in Christchurch are within the city’s ‘red zone’ so the immediate focus for the team is getting our team of around 1600 back to work.

“Trish and her team will also continue to work with local and central government, and the Canterbury business community, to review the impact the earthquake had on Telecom operations in Christchurch and around the country, to ensure we make the best use of insights from the February earthquake in future disaster resilience planning,” said Dr Reynolds.

Ralph Chivers, previously Telecom’s Head of Government and Industry Relations and another born-and-bred Cantabrian, has been appointed programme director and will be working fulltime on the project. He will be spending much of his time in Christchurch. Ralph will have responsibility for managing key aspects of the recovery project under Trish’s leadership.

Trish and Ralph will work with a large team drawn, as required, from all parts of Telecom’s business.

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