Telus Corp. chief executive Darren Entwistle will retire at the end of June and be succeeded by former CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig, the telecom company says.
“It has, without a shadow of a doubt, been a tremendous privilege to be part of the Telus team for the past 26 years and to have an opportunity to work alongside many of the people on this call,” Entwistle told analysts during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Dodig becomes CEO designate at Telus effective immediately and will join the company’s leadership team full-time on May 1 before becoming chief executive on July 1. He stepped down as chief executive at CIBC last year, handing the reins at the bank to Harry Culham after more than a decade in the job.
Entwistle said the board was looking to “lock in” a leader who “had a set of leadership values that reflected the culture that has served the Telus organization so well.”
“Victor’s proven track record leading customer-oriented businesses, driving growth and operating in a regulated sector positions him ideally to build on Darren’s legacy and to continue creating long-term, sustainable value for our shareholders,” Telus board chair John Manley said in a news release.
Entwistle will step down from the Telus board when he leaves the chief executive job on June 30.
He will be given the title of CEO emeritus and act as an adviser and be available to Dodig until April 30, 2027.
Desjardins analyst Jerome Dubreuil said the leadership transition could bring questions about near-term capital allocation, including the dividend, though that remains the board’s prerogative. He added that he thinks the incoming new CEO is a “solid pick.”
“Given Mr. Entwistle’s strong reputation, we often received questions on (Telus’) succession plans and we believe Mr. Dodig will check several investor boxes,” he said in a note.
The announcement came as Telus reported a profit attributable to common shares of $292 million or 19 cents per share for its fourth quarter. The result compared with a profit attributable to common shares of $358 million or 24 cents per share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Operating revenue and other income totalled $5.26 billion, down from $5.38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024.
On an adjusted basis, Telus says it earned 20 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31 compared with an adjusted profit of 25 cents per share a year earlier.
The company’s results were impacted as smaller players in the industry opted for aggressive pricing over the past few weeks, said Zainul Mawji, executive vice-president and president for Telus Consumer Solutions, on the call on Thursday.
“The industry is engaged in some irrational tactics, unfortunately, following a period of some additional sanguine behaviour that you’ve seen flow through in our results,” Mawji said.
“When we see behaviour of masking promotions to erode value at the premium level, that undermines the perception of premium brands and initiates a pretty detrimental race to the bottom in the mind of the consumer,” she said.
Mawji said that’s where Telus’ flanker and prepaid brands serve an important role, catering to the value-focused demographic within the market.
“We don’t want to be criticized or really apologetic for how we respond to that competitive aggression,” she said.
Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. have both said they are taking a more balanced approach and are being selective with their offers and promotions.
Telus reported its mobile phone churn rate — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.46 per cent in the fourth quarter, which improved compared with 1.50 per cent a year ago.
The company said the decrease was largely due to its “ongoing focus on customer retention and network quality, along with success in bundled offerings,” which were partially offset by customer switching decisions in response to continuing marketing and promotional price competition.
Telus said it added 50,000 net mobile phone subscribers in the quarter, down by 20,000 from a year ago.
Its mobile phone average revenue per user was $57.10 in the fourth quarter, a decrease of $0.95 from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in roaming revenues as more Canadians adopt unlimited data and Canada-U.S.-Mexico plans.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX: T, TSX: CM)
