NBN Tasmania chair retires

Outgoing NBN Tasmania chair, Doug Campbell

The NBN Tasmania board has witness the second major change in as many weeks, with chairman Doug Campbell announcing his retirement.

Citing personal reasons in a statement released by the company’s parent company NBN Co, Campbell will leave the role absent at the end of the year.

An NBN Co spokesperson told Computerworld Australia in an email that a replacement was yet to be found for Campbell and that there were no other changes to staffing planned.

As chairman of the Tasmanian subsidiary, Campbell oversaw the roots of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in the state, including the deployment of the first three trial sites at Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point. A joint venture with state utility Aurora Energy was planned as part of the rollout, but negotiations ultimately failed.

Issues around membership of the board have also arisen in the past year, with all three Tasmanian members - including one state government representative - failing to renew their 12-month contracts.

Campbell was also seen as key to the development of potential opt-out legislation in Tasmania, allowing NBN Co contractors to install necessary fibres and equipment at premises without permission.

Prior to his position on the NBN Tasmania board, Campbell headed the Acacia consortium of telco and business executives competing to build the $4.7 billion fibre-to-the-node NBN Mark I in 2008 and 2009. Before that, Campbell was high on the Telstra food chain as group managing director of Network and Technology, Wholesale and International and Telstra Country Wide.

Campbell’s retirement comes days after the company appointed local businessman Darren Alexander to the board in order to educate Tasmanian businesses and vendors on the benefits of the NBN.