BT Group has appointed Allison Kirkby as its next Chief Executive. She will take over from Philip Jansen around the end of January 2024 at the latest.
Kirkby has been President & CEO of Swedish telco Telia Company since early 2020. Telia has 25 million customers across the Nordic and Baltic region.
Kirkby moved into the TMT sector in 2010, initially joining Virgin Media, and was most recently President & CEO of TDC (2018-2020), the largest telecommunications company in Denmark, and President & CEO of Tele2 AB (2015-2018), the largest challenger telecommunications company in Sweden and the Baltics.
Earlier in her career she held several financial and operational roles at Procter & Gamble (1990-2010) and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1990 while at Guinness plc.
Kirkby has been a Non-Executive Director at BT Group since 2019 and is also a Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit Committee of Brookfield Asset Management Limited.
Jansen announced earlier this month that he would step down from his role within the next 12 months. He will continue as Chief Executive until the end of January 2024 at the latest, and will be available to support the handover until the end of March 2024, at which point he intends to retire from executive life.
Kirkby will be the first female chief executive to lead BT in its history.
Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman said: “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.”
Kirkby said: “I’m incredibly honoured to have been appointed as the next Chief Executive of BT Group. BT is such an important company for the UK, and our many customers both in the UK and internationally and is uniquely placed to help everyone benefit from the rapid advances in digitalisation.
“Our products and services have never been more important to how our customers live and work, and thanks to the significant investment BT is putting into digital infrastructure and in the modernisation of its services, I see us playing an even more important role going forward.
“Having been a member of the BT Group Board for the past four years, I’m fully supportive of our strategy and am excited about leading it into its next phase of development, as we grow to support customers, shareholders and the UK economy.”
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