BT Group named Allison Kirkby as its next CEO, replacing Philip Jansen, who announced his departure earlier this month. The switchover is due to occur by January 2024 at the latest.
Kirkby has been president and CEO of Sweden-based Telia since early 2020. Telia serves 25 million customers across the Nordic and Baltic region and said it has started a recruitment process to find a new CEO.
Kirkby has been a director at BT Group since 2019.
“The board is delighted to have appointed Allison as our new chief executive. She is a proven leader, with deep sector experience and a history of having transformed businesses. I look forward to supporting her as we drive our long-term strategy to transform BT Group, ensuring it delivers for all our stakeholders,” said BT Group Chairman Adam Crozier in a statement.
Jansen will continue to be available to support the handover at BT until the end of March 2024, when he is set to retire from executive life, according to BT. The company plans to announce Kirkby’s actual start date at a later time.
Kirkby’s base salary will be about $1.4 million annually.
Kirkby started her telecom career at Virgin Media in 2010. Prior to that, she held a number of financial and operational roles at Procter & Gamble and qualified as a chartered management accountant in 1990 while at Guinness.
With respect to the transition period, Crozier stated: “Philip continues to lead the business very effectively as can be seen in the good progress shown at our most recent financial results. Given Allison is already on the board, we are confident we will have an orderly leadership transition and handover of responsibilities.”
Support for current strategy
BT operates the EE mobile network and is focused on extending 5G coverage as it invests heavily in building a national fiber broadband network. Kirkby said she’s fully supportive of the company’s current strategy. Several news outlets noted that she’s the first female chief executive in BT’s nearly 180-year-old history.
On Thursday, BT said it’s Openreach is now 44% of the way through its full fiber build and customer demand has continued to grow, with a total network take-up rate of 32%.
Earlier this year, BT Group announced it will be cutting 55,000 jobs over the next several years, with a sizable portion of those jobs replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). The total workforce is expected to be reduced from 130,000 to about 75,000-90,000 by the fiscal year ending March 2030.