Although he has a low public profile, Milne has unusually wide experience.

After graduating from arts and drama at Flinders University in Adelaide he founded Film and Television Associates in 1976, which produced non-fiction videos for government departments. He ran the company for 17 years.

In 1992, he joined a start-up, Globe Media, as CEO. Globe designed some of Australia's first commercial websites. In 1995, he was hired by Microsoft as managing director of MSN, the company's first entry into the internet portal business.

At Ozemail he helped the company become one Australia's most successful internet service providers.

Telstra, which was struggling to generate interest in its own internet service, watched his success at Ozemail with envy. The phone giant proposed a takeover of OzeMail, which was blocked by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in 2000.

Justin Milne, executive general manager Kerry Willcock and director Ziggy Switkowski at Tabcorp AGM in October 2014 in Sydney. Chris Pearce

Telstra swoops

In 2002 chief executive Ziggy Switkowski asked Milne if he would like to run Telstra's broadband and media businesses.


The decision propelled Milne into the top ranks of Australian business. In the internal battle for resources, he successfully challenged Telstra's engineering-dominated culture and convinced the company to invest in consumer-facing entertainment and information.

Telstra's BigPond division was focused on installing high-speed fibre through cities and towns and switching customers from dial-up modems. The expensive service was being outmarketed by rivals, including some who were buying wholesale access from Telstra and reselling it to customers under their own brands.

He complained to his team that Telstra was complacent and afraid of taking risks. The majority of internet services at the time cost around $50 a month and were promoted on the quality of their technology.

Justin Milne rings the bell at the stock exchange after MYOB was listed in 2015. Daniel Munoz

Milne convinced Switkowski to cut the price of BigPond access from $50 to $29.95. Other executives opposed the change. They didn't see why Telstra should give up the revenue when it was already in a strong position because almost every Australian used its services.

Milne argued that the low price was a marketing tactic and customers would rise up the "Arpu ladder", meaning they would want more bandwidth and faster access after they signed up. Arpu stands for average revenue per user.

Shockwaves

The cut set shockwaves through the industry. Telstra's reseller customers were outraged. They complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that Telstra was engaging in predatory pricing to push them out of business.


Milne used slick marketing that portrayed Telstra as easier to use than its rivals. Consumers loved the focus on price and didn't seem to care about the regulatory furore.

The changes drove BigPond's share of the market to 40 per cent from 20 per cent.

"For the incumbent to come out so aggressively, it really changed the market," says iiNet founder Michael Malone, who was competing with Telsta at the time. "Justin came in with a marketing-led approach, talking about customer experience."

iiNet eventually bought Ozemail.

Milne spent eight years at Telstra, during which its number of internet customers rose to 2.5 million from 200,000. Friends dubbed him the father of high speed broadband in Australia.

Full-time director

In 2010 he retired from full-time work and became a sought-after company director. He joined the boards of Tabcorp, the National Basketball League, NetComm Wireless and Members Equity Bank, which is owned by industry superannuation funds. Two years ago he was made chairman of MYOB Group, the accounting software company, where the share price has fallen from $3.65 when floated in 2015 to $3.62 on Tuesday.

He is on the board of computer services company SMS Management & Technology, which has struggled with the industry's transition to cloud computing. The SMS share price has fallen from above $4 to around $1.63.


In November, 2013, two months after the Coalition won government, Milne was made a director of NBN Co, the government company building the national broadband network. Turnbull was communications minister at the time and had responsibility for the project.

NBN Co's chief network operations officer is JB Rouselot, who was Milne's deputy at Telstra. He was appointed on the advice of Milne, according to an industry source.

Milne has a direct personality, an avuncular conversation style, and a pragmatic approach to business, say people who know him. He understands popular culture and isn't a cultural elitist.

Keeping to business

If his position as ABC chairman is confirmed, Milne will likely concentrate on the national broadcaster's transition to digital and would stay out of the ideological debates about the ABC's coverage, one of his former employees said.

"He will cause Malcolm no trouble politically," he said. "He won't be sidetracked by who or what was said on Q & A or the latest letter-writing campaign by Cory Bernardi."

Another industry figure who has known Milne a long time said he "is in the PM's pocket", will not fight for greater funding and doesn't know much about television or radio programs.

"Justin has no ideas beyond the 'digital religion' of which the PM is also a card-carrying member," the source said. "This is about technology for its own sake and no sense of understanding the broad audience and how it listens, watches, thinks and reacts."

The government said an announcement would be made soon.

with Yolanda Redrup

​Correction: An earlier version of this article said Mr Milne was made chief executive of Ozemail in 1998, instead of 1999.