Blanken joined Telstra in June 2009 was “instrumental in initiating Telstra's transformation into a leading Network Applications and Services player” the company said in a statement.
He led the company’s 2014 acquisition of global service provider Pacnet which helped double the size of Telstra’s international business unit, before he was named group managing director and chief customer officer of Telstra Enterprise.
Blanken will initially take a six month sabbatical with his family, Telstra said, before deciding upon his next move. His departure is timed with the end of Telstra’s financial year.
Blanken’s departure from Telstra is not the only shift in the Australia-based company’s management team, as it also confirmed that current executive director of global sales international Ellie Sweeney will move back to Australia where she will take a six month break.
Sweeney, who has served various roles with Telstra since joining in 2007 according to her LinkedIn, will then return to the company in a new, unnamed leadership role.
Sweeney was recently named as one of Capacity’s 20 Women to Watch in telecoms. She has worked in the global telecommunications industry for 20 years and has held key senior roles in consumer, small business, enterprise and government and operations divisions. Earlier, as executive director for global wholesale at Telstra, she was responsible for leading, communicating and executing the global wholesale and over the top strategy.
Prior to that, she held the position of executive director of solutions sales at Telstra, leading the domestic and global sales teams across voice, mobile, data, cloud, UC, security, managed services, industry solutions and alliances
Sweeney will be replaced as executive director, global sales international, by Oliver Camplin-Warner, who currently leads Telstra Enterprise’s major accounts team. Camplin-Warner previously led the firm’s government sales team and will relocate to Hong Kong to take over the leadership of the international sales team.
Telstra recently expanded its business in Europe with the opening of a new office in Paris that will serve as Telstra’s hub for Continental Europe. In addition it is increasing its European footprint with its Telstra Programmable Network which will be available via new points of presence (PoPs) in Frankfurt and Paris.
