BT Group CEO Philip Jansen has announced plans to step down after four years at the top of the UK telecommunications giant.
Jansen first took charge of the company in February 2019, leading it through the pandemic and continuing cost of living crisis.
News of Jansen’s replacement could come over the summer, but no official timeline has been set. Jansen told BT’s board of directors he will resign at “an appropriate moment” in the coming 12 months.
"Philip has done an excellent job in his time at BT and the Board is fully supportive of our long-term strategy which he and his team are pursuing,” said Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman.
“Whilst we are still in the early years of that transformation we are on track to deliver. The succession process to replace Philip is something that the Board was well prepared for.
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“All appropriate candidates are being considered and we expect to be able to update the market on progress over the course of the summer. In the meantime, it is business as usual, and we are focused on executing our plans and delivering for all our stakeholders."
Jansen had been rumored to be on the way out in the past few months, but the chief executive has remained in place as the firm continued to ride out its rocky period.
“This has been on the cards for some time,” said Paolo Pescatore, tech, media and telco analyst at PP Foresight.
“There’s not much more left for him to do. He has helped navigate the group through a difficult period. Probably time to think about the next chapter for both him and BT. Openreach is now in a better place, consolidating the enterprise function and moving away from costly sports rights.”
“All eyes now turn on the successor. A prime candidate is already at the business with Marc Allera, who heads up the consumer segment.”
Pescatore told ITPro that the consumer division has “aggressive growth targets” and that, under Jansen, Allera has gained vital experience and the respect of key partners.
In BT’s FY23 results its consumer unit accounted for £9.7 billion ($12.4 billion) out of the £20.7 billion ($26.4 billion) total, with fiber to the premises (FTTP) and 5G highlighted as consumer technologies of particular interest.
The telco has faced hard deadlines for consumer and enterprise technology in recent years. Its initial speed at 5G deployment was hampered by the government’s decision to ban Huawei equipment from the UK’s 5G network.
At the time, BT warned that it could take seven years to fully strip the Huawei kit, and in June 2022 it requested an extension to the January 2023 deadline by which it had been expected to remove all such equipment from its core network.
In May, BT announced plans to lay off 55,000 workers by 2030 in a push to slash operating costs. At the time, BT told ITPro that 10,000 of these roles are expected to be cut as a direct result of greater use of automation and improvements to the firm’s digital channel.
Since Jansen became BT CEO in 2019, the firm’s share value has fallen almost 40%. Its FY23 revenue dropped 1% on the previous year, with profit down 12% across the period.
His successor will have a busy in-tray, with much of the company’s cost-saving measures still to come and lofty goals to reach in areas such as fiber rollout and planning around 6G.
ITPro has approached BT for more information.
