BT boss Philip Jansen steps down

Philip Jansen

BT Group has announced today chief executive officer Philip Jansen that he will be stepping down from the role.

The chief joined the company in 2013 before being appointed CEO in 2019. The BT boss intends to step down over the next 12 months.

Prior to BT, Jansen was CEO of Worldpay. Before that he was CEO and then chairman at Brakes Group between 2010 and 2015. He spent the previous six years at Sodexo where he was group chief executive, Europe, South Africa and India. He also served as chief operating officer at MyTravel Group from 2002 to 2004 and managing director of Telewest Communications (now Virgin Media) from 2000 to 2002 after initially starting his career at Procter & Gamble.

According to Sky, BT is working with the search firm Spencer Stuart to find Jansen’s successor. While The Telegraph also reported that Deutsche Telekom is mulling over a bid to takeover BT which it is majority shareholder.

Adam Crozier, BT Group chairman said: “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. Whilst we are still in the early years of that transformation we are on track to deliver.

Jansen said: “We’ve made a lot of progress over the last four and half years and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved to date. We’re investing heavily in both BT’s and the UK’s future. We’re building like fury, have now passed over 11m homes with fibre, have got 5G service to 68% of the country and our customer service is much improved. This is creating a much stronger BT Group which is starting to drive growth for both investors and the UK. But there’s a lot more to do and I am fully committed to driving the business forward until I hand over to my successor.”