Theresa Gattung surprises wool exporters

Former Telecom CEO Theresa Gattung has been appointed Wool Partners International chair and more recently former brewer and liquor brands manager Iain Abercrombie was appointed its CEO. 

Wool exporters have been surprised that Ms Gattung referred to them as spreading misinformation and that they had been “vitriolic” toward her.

Until she took the appointment few people in the wool industry had met Ms Gattung. Because she does not have a background in the wool industry she is not expected to have gained a broad knowledge in the short time she’s been involved.

“We haven’t agreed with a lot of what she’s said and we’ve let her know,” Wool Exporters Council President John Henderson said. “We can only judge her on her Telecom leadership and what she says publicly about the wool industry, which may materially affect 15,000 wool growers and the wider marketing and sales pipeline.

As the CEO of Telecom Ms Gattung told analysts that she used confusion as a marketing tool to maintain profit. Her exact quote in May 2006 was:

“Think about pricing. What has every Telco in the world done in the past? It’s used confusion as its chief marketing tool, and that’s fine. You could argue that’s helped all of us keep calling prices up and get those revenues, high margin businesses, keeping going for a lot longer than what would have been the case. But at some level, whether they are conscious of it or not, customers know that that’s what the game has been, they know we’re not being straight up, she said.”