Internode appoints its first chief operating officer

Internode has rewarded its long-serving customer services manager for her work keeping the ISP's subscribers happy during its massive growth phase by elevating Liz Cornelissen to the new position of chief operations officer (COO).

Internode founder Simon Hackett stays as the broadband provider's managing director.

Cornelissen (pictured) will have responsibility for the broadband provider's Internode Media group that oversees the design and delivery of services such as video. In her previous role, she was responsible for leading customer services, sales, media, product management and business programs.

She said her new role was to ensure Internode improved as it grew.

"We need to focus on our core business and ensure we maintain superior customer service and innovative products," Cornelissen said.

"We'll continue to do that by having great quality service, adding plenty of extra value for our customers and staying ahead of the industry."

The ISP's chief executive officer, Patrick Tapper, said Cornelissen had a "wealth of experience" to bring to the role.

"As well as more than six years leading our customer services group, she previously held senior management positions with Reuters and AAP, leading customer service teams in Asia and Australia," Tapper said. "The role is a new one within Internode and will be key in leading a number of important transformations for the business."

During the past year, Internode has altered its management structure to provide more services to more Australians.

The restructure included:

• Appointing group general manager Tapper as chief executive officer;
• Promoting financial controller Sean Habgood to chief financial officer;
• Recruiting Mike Damms as Internode's first chief information officer.

The Adelaide company has grown four-fold in the past four years and has 430 employees and 150,000 broadband customers nationally, it said.

It delivered services such Naked ADSL2+, private IP networks, voice over IP (VoIP) and managed data centres.