Australian telco Telstra Corporation Ltd. Chief Executive Sol Trujillo on Tuesday left the top position, much ahead of the scheduled date of leaving, June 30.

Trujillo, who is considered to be no stranger to controversies, took on the role in July 2005 to boost earnings at Telstra.

But he was at once at battlefront with the Australian government over plans to offer rivals like the Optus unit of Singapore Telecommunications access to Telstra’s infrastructure.

Besides, his term was also marked by more than 8,000 job cuts and 250 per cent surge in complaints.

The controversy-ridden CEO will be succeeded by David Thodey, while Trujillo has returned to the US, leaving behind a one-third uncompleted five-year plan that was drafted to improve the company’s performance.

The move is viewed by many as a poor move from the company to placate the rocky relationship that Telstra shared with the government during Trujillo’s tenure,.

Prior to his role in Telstra, Trujillo had been chief executive of the French-owned Orange and worked at Colorado-based US West/Mountain Bell for 26 years, becoming the first Mexican-American to head a Fortune 150 company.

Trujillo takes home with himself $31 million for the three years and 10 months work.

The company’s profit from July to December dipped 1 percent to 1.92 billion Australian dollars, or $1.24 billion.

Telstra shares fell 2.4 percent to 3.68 Australian dollars in Sydney.