Rewriting the Focus

A million-dollar investment in gold bullion has kept Wellingtonian Theresa Gattung, 49, financially secure for the past four years out of the spotlight, but now the former chief executive of Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) is planning a return to the sharemarket-listed company scene. It is understood she is in advanced negotiations on joining a top-1 board in Australia. Gattung took the reins at TNZ in 1999 — aged only 37 — and remained chief executive until June 27, taking the company through a period of massive change in the telecommunications sector. “I ran a $1 billion company for nearly eight years, managing that balance sheet and the executive team. That is invaluable. And most of the investors in that company were outside Australia and New Zealand,” Gattung says. She was named in Fortune magazine’s list of the 5 most powerful women in international business several times while at TNZ. The time has come to step things up again. “I am up for reweighting the focus more commercially,” she says.