Who is Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and who is her husband Rodney? A look into the lavish lives of the embattled power couple as they bounce from one PR disaster to another
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has been CEO of Optus since April 1, 2020, but most people only hear her name when the company becomes embroiled in a PR disaster.
Unfortunately for her, there have been two in just over a year.
In September 2022, Optus suffered a data breach that affected 9.7 million current and former customers – more than a third of the Australian population.
And on Wednesday, the Optus network crashed, cutting off phone calls, texts and internet access to 10 million customers, impacting hospitals, banks and trains that use their network.
Ms Bayer Rosmarin, 46, then created a PR disaster of her own when she went missing for seven hours as essential services and businesses struggled to cope.
But while the Singapore-owned telco she leads has lurched from crisis to crisis, she remains adamant she can stay in the top job.
Here’s everything you need to know about the high-flying female director.
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin (pictured) has been CEO of Optus since April 1, 2020, but most people only hear her name when the company becomes embroiled in a PR disaster
Who is Kelly Bayer Rosmarin?
Ms Bayer Rosmarin was born and raised in South Africa, but moved to the US when she received a scholarship to the prestigious Stanford University.
She obtained a degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in management sciences, winning an award for being the best graduate.
After college, she moved to California to work in Silicon Valley at both established and startup software companies.
She subsequently worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and joined Commonwealth Bank in 2004, where she held several senior roles before being appointed to the bank’s board in December 2013.
She joined Optus as Deputy CEO on March 1, 2019 and became CEO exactly one year and one month later.
Who is her husband?
Ms Bayer Rosmarin is married to former Commonwealth Bank director Rodney Rosmarin.
The powerful couple have two daughters and live in a $15 million mansion in the exclusive eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, along with their family dog, an Italian greyhound named Vespa.
Her family moved into the mansion in May 2021 after selling a smaller, more modern home nearby for $7.75 million.
They also sold their second home, a sprawling 1915 Rose Manor in Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands, for $4 million in August last year after a $400,000 renovation.
Rodney Rosmarin is a former director at the Commonwealth Bank
They also sold their second home, a sprawling 1915 Rose Manor in Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands, for $4 million in August last year after a $400,000 renovation.
Her Optus salary has not been disclosed, but insiders suggest it is around $5.15 million per year.
While working at the Commonwealth Bank, she received an additional $1 million in severance pay.
Mr Rosmarin left CBA before his wife, ending in December 2017 after almost fourteen years at the bank.
Since then he has worked as an ‘independent consultant’.
What’s the latest scandal facing Optus?
More than 10 million people across the country were affected on Wednesday when the entire Optus network went offline from 4am and services were not fully restored until 5.30pm.
Ms Bayer Rosmarin was missing for hours when the telecoms provider crashed – eventually cutting coverage almost seven hours after the outage was first reported, admitting they had still not identified the source of the problem.
The embattled CEO dodged calls from ministers after the Optus network crashed on Wednesday morning, cutting off calls, texts and internet access to 10 million customers and affecting hospitals, banks and trains that use their network.
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said she had been unable to get a response from Optus about the outage until the corporate giant finally issued an update hours later.
And Telecommunications Minister Michelle Rowland slammed the telco for not coming to the fore by publicly addressing the issue.
Businesses were unable to process card transactions because they were connected to Optus
There is no hiding if the network goes down. Ten million people were directly affected
“Customers want to know what is going on and I would urge Optus to disseminate that information through all possible channels and to do so as a matter of priority,” she said.
But shortly after 10.30am, Ms Rosmarin called ABC Sydney via WhatsApp because Optus was away.
She apologized for the outage, but admitted that the network had not yet determined the “root cause” of the problem.
Early signs indicate that a ‘misconfiguration’ of the telco’s BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routers caused the nationwide meltdown that lasted more than nine hours.
BGP is an essential factor in the global movement of Internet traffic, which has been likened to the way GPS systems tell self-driving cars where to go.
Does she have a future at Optus?
Although Optus and its CEO weathered the storm of the 2022 data breach, which saw the private data of 10 million customers hacked, the future for Ms Bayer Rosmarin now looks less certain following Wednesday’s network collapse.
For most people, the data breach had little effect on their lives; it was just something that happened on the dark web and you couldn’t worry too much about it unless your personal information was being used by criminals.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin (pictured) was missing for almost six hours as the Singapore-owned telco faces another massive crisis since taking over
But there’s no hiding if the network goes down. 10 million people were directly affected.
Hospitals and train services were affected. Businesses were unable to process card transactions because they were connected to Optus.
It is nothing short of a disaster if this happens to a telecommunications company and questions are already being asked about Ms Bayer Rosmarin’s effectiveness in her job.
Despite this, she has rejected calls to resign and is confident she can remain in the top job.