Spark New Zealand announced a number of changes to its management team as part of a broader company restructure.

MD Simon Moutter (pictured) said in statement the operator will move away from a traditional hierarchical structure based around large business units towards an agile structure where staff are grouped into multi-disciplined teams rather than specific business units. This change in approach necessitates a change in the leadership team.

As part of the changes the operator named current Spark Digital CEO Jolie Hodson as customer director; chief digital officer of platforms Claire Barber as product director; and Spark Connect COO Mark Beder as technology director. The company is in the process of hiring a new marketing director.

Unfulfilling
Ed Hyde, CEO of Spark Ventures, is expected to leave the company by the end of June. Moutter explained: “When we formed Spark Ventures as a business unit some five years ago, it was to accelerate our rate of innovation within Spark, by creating a focal point for the investment in and incubation of new digital services ventures.”

“Unfortunately, with Spark Ventures’ activities being integrated within the core of our new agile tribe structure, we’ve been unable to date to identify a role that is significant and fulfilling enough for Ed.”

Grant McBeath, who took over as interim CEO of Spark’s Home, Mobile and Business unit from Jason Paris earlier this year, will continue in the role until July, when he will return to his previous role guiding Spark’s consumer and SME sales and service channels.

Moutter noted in an interim results announcement in February the company is considering accelerating its business transformation to strengthen its FY2019 (the year to end-June 2019) earnings, adding: “No decision has yet been made, but if the programme is accelerated, then FY18 guidance may reduce due to the associated costs of change.”

Spark, with a 38 per cent share of the country’s mobile connections, trails market leader Vodafone by 1 percentage point, Q4 data from GSMA Intelligence showed.