White

"From Gibbs’ perspective, the primary task for the new chief executive was to implement the plan that had been drawn together by the taskforce he was leading. Deane had to satisfy himself that it was deliverable, commit to it and then make it happen. This he did with style, taking on McMillen as his chief operating officer and White as his chief financial officer, and bringing in some of his own people to strengthen the marketing and human resources side, where the taskforce’s work was relatively underdeveloped. In February 1993 he announced the second round of restructuring, with a goal of reducing staff numbers to 7500 over four years. It wasn’t Gibbs’ original target, but it was sufficient to ‘make the company sing’.[37](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477273-050103421-37) The market responded with gusto, sending the share price surging past $3.00 almost immediately.[38](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477273-050103421-38) When critics said Gibbs was tough and mean for slashing staffing levels, his reply was always the same: ‘It’s not me that’s tough on Telecom, it’s the consumers; they want and demand cheap calls. If we hope to remain a profitable business we have to give them what they want.’ Telecom’s progress was also helped by the slow progress Clear was making in its court battles."

"Running parallel with that, Gibbs worked with White on some financial engineering to gear the business up a little. Their package, which returned $400 million of capital to shareholders, also gave the share price a jolt. Investment in plant and technology, meantime, remained significant. In the financial year after the reconstruction, Telecom’s investment at $407 million was higher than the $400 million taken by shareholders in dividends.[35](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477273-050103421-35)"