SYDNEY -- The Chairman of Telstra Corporation, Donald McGauchie AO, today announced that the Board had appointed Solomon (Sol) Trujillo as Chief Executive Officer and as an executive director of the company.

Mr Trujillo will take up his position on 1 July 2005. He will replace Dr Ziggy Switkowski, who will step down on 1 July 2005.

Mr Trujillo, aged 53, and his wife Corine, will be moving to Australia from California to take up the role.

Mr McGauchie said today: "The Board is delighted with Mr Trujillo's appointment. We believe he well and truly meets the exacting criteria set down by the Board for the task ahead. We unanimously agree that he is the best person to lead Telstra and believe this is an excellent outcome.

"During his career he has successfully managed fixed line, wireless, broadband and directory businesses - virtually every facet of Telstra's business. He has enormous depth, expertise and understanding in matters regulatory, operational, financial, marketing and sales and a deep understanding of technology.

"Mr Trujillo has successfully led a number of major cultural and business change programs. We believe Telstra will similarly benefit from his pragmatic innovation, strategic and tactical thinking and outstanding implementation.

"He has the proven ability to deliver substantial top-line growth achievable through a highly developed focus on customers and services.

The Board expects that Mr Trujillo will drive cultural and organisational change throughout Telstra, enabling the corporation to further embrace a service driven, customer focused way of doing business.

Mr Trujillo has been appointed on an ongoing contract. He holds a Bachelor of Business and a MBA degree from the University of Wyoming. He was previously a nonexecutive Director and then Chief Executive Office of Orange based in London, one of the largest mobile companies in Europe , was the CEO of hi-tech company, Gravitron and spent 26 years with US West Inc, including serving as its Chairman, CEO and President for 5 years.

"His non-executive and then CEO role with Orange included driving growth in the highly competitive European mobile market. His time with US West/Mountain Bell covering diverse geographies such as Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona means he has experience running businesses in geographies similar to Australia," Mr McGauchie said.

Mr Trujillo is currently sitting on the boards of Pepsi, Target, Gannett, (the newspaper chain) and EDS. He will leave all but one of these board positions.

Mr Trujillo will receive a fixed remuneration package of $3 million per annum. He will also receive an annual short term incentive of up to the value of $3 million and an annual long term incentive of up to the value of $4 million. These incentive components are referable to significant performance milestones. He will receive an initial sign on payment of $1 million and fifty per cent of his first year incentive on commencement. The full text of the contract is attached.

Mr McGauchie, on behalf of the Board, thanked Dr Switkowski for his valuable contribution during his time at Telstra and wished him every success for the future.

Mr Trujillo said: "Telstra is one of the world's leading full service telecommunications and information services companies. Dr Switkowski's legacy is to have positioned the company well to meet the next stage of commercial and technical challenges of the new millennium and continue the development of this industry in one of the most important markets in the world.

"I am looking forward to taking on this challenging role and working with the management team and staff to build on Telstra's current success," he said.

Telstra Corp.