Paris’ departure comes as rival Spark enters a period of leadership change. Justine Smyth earlier said she had entered her final term as chairwoman.

And after a sustained period of poor performance – Spark shares recently hit a 16-year low – there has been speculation about a new chief executive, too.

“I’d expect that will be on the agenda for the next chair,” Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson told the Herald.

“Jolie Hodson has had over seven years as CEO and has had senior roles at Spark since 2013, so it would be a natural time to transition to a new leader.”

Paris, 51, is also a passionate Warriors fan and a director of Ngāi Tahu Holdings.

“Leading One New Zealand has been the privilege of my career. The people here are simply extraordinary, and I’ll miss working alongside them every day. There’s never a perfect time to hand over the reins, but after nearly eight years, with the business performing strongly and our strategy firmly in place, this feels like the right time,” Paris said.

“I’m absolutely delighted the board has appointed Nick. He’s an outstanding leader, and I know he’ll do a fantastic job leading One New Zealand into its next chapter.”

Before joining One NZ, Judd was chief financial officer for Tourism Holdings.

He also spent more than 15 years at Air New Zealand, in New Zealand and internationally, across strategy, sales and growth roles.

Paris was head of digital media at TVNZ before becoming chief executive of TV3 and Four at the time the channels were still owned by Mediaworks.

Between 2011 and 2018 he held senior roles at Telecom, which was renamed Spark part-way through his stint.

In 2018 he joined Vodafone NZ as chief executive. The telco, now 100% owned by NZX-listed Infratil, became One NZ in 2022.

Signature moves under Paris’ leadership included being the first to introduce satellite-to-mobile to the NZ market via a partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink and strongly pushing AI.

One NZ lifted its operating earnings to $604 million in FY2026 from the year-ago $598m, making it the biggest profit generator in the Infratil group, ahead of CDC Data Centres, with a profit lift forecast for FY2027.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.