Theresa Gattung

Who is Theresa Gattung?

Theresa Gattung is a former CEO of Telecom New Zealand.

Gattung was educated at McKillop College, Rotorua, the University of Waikato and Victoria University of Wellington

Gattung worked in senior marketing roles at National Mutual and at the Bank of New Zealand before taking up a similar role at Telecom. In April 1996, she became Telecom's Group General Manager Services. In October 1999, she took over from Rod Deane as Telecom's CEO.

In March 2006, Gattung courted controversy by characterising telcos to a Sydney audience as not "straight up" with customers on pricing. "Think about pricing," the press quoted her as saying. "What has every telco in the world done in the past? It's used confusion as its chief marketing tool. And that's fine ... But at some level, whether they consciously articulate or not, customers know that's what the game has been. They know we're not being straight up."

On February 2, 2007, Gattung announced that she would leave Telecom at the end of June 2007. She was replaced by Scotsman Dr Paul Reynolds from BT.

In 2006 the Forbes list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" ranked Gattung at number 49. In 2007 she "just missed making" the list.