Ex-Microsoft Oz chief joins Telstra board

The former chief of Microsoft Australia and New Zealand Steve Vamos has been appointed a non-executive director of Telstra.

It was unclear whether Vamos would be returning to Australia to take on the role.

He left for the United States in January 2007 to become Microsoft's online business head of worldwide sales and international operations.

A spokesman for Telstra has been contacted for comment.

"Steve has an exceptional knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of the Australian market, enhanced by his experience as a global executive at Microsoft," Telstra chairman Catherine Livingstone said in a statement.

"Telstra has built an impressive and growing stable of online media assets and I believe Steve's Internet and technology expertise will be of great benefit to the Board and the company," she added.

Telstra also announced that Russell Higgins AO had been appointed as a non-executive director.

Higgins, 59, is chairman of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, an Australian Government initiative launched in April to accelerate the worldwide development of carbon capture and storage technologies.

It was also announced that Charles Macek had informed the Board he would not stand for re-election at the company's Annual General Meeting in November.

"Charles has helped guide the Board through eight years of enormous change at Telstra," Livingstone said. "His acknowledged authority in corporate governance has served the Board well on many important occasions."