Spark New Zealand Limited announced changes to its Leadership Squad, with the creation of two new roles that will replace the current Customer Director role - Customer Director Enterprise and Government, and SME and Consumer Director. The Customer Director role has traditionally spanned the consumer market and the small to medium, enterprise, and government segments of the business market. As enterprise and government customers increasingly seek more complex solutions that leverage Spark's investment in new technologies, Spark has created two roles dedicated to these different segments of the market to deliver greater focus and better outcomes for customers.

The development of Spark's new technologies will be incorporated into the Customer Director Enterprise and Government role to align Spark's technology investment more closely to the evolving needs and innovation objectives of its customers. As such, Spark's current Chief Operating Officer role will become Network and Operations Director, with a focus on the continued delivery of a highly resilient, automated, and secure network. As a result of these changes, and after a significant leadership career spanning 10 years with Spark, Customer Director Grant McBeath has decided he would like to explore new opportunities outside Spark.

Spark's current Chief Operating Officer, Mark Beder, will move into the Customer Director Enterprise and Government role, bringing with him 20 years' experience at Spark and knowledge of the wide range of technologies that serve Spark's customers now, and those that will serve them in the future. Spark's Consumer and SME Channels Lead, Greg Clark, will move into the role of SME and Consumer Director. Greg joined Spark in 2013 and during his time has led the transformation of the broader retail network and Spark's SME operating model, delivering strong revenue growth and higher levels of customer engagement.

Spark will commence an internal and external search to appoint a Network and Operations Director in the coming months.