BT chief Philip Jansen to step down

Philip Jansen, the chief executive of the British telecoms giant BT Group, has announced he is stepping down within the next 12 months.

BT Group’s next CEO is yet to be decided by the board’s nominations committee.

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

The nominations committee is reviewing potential candidates and will give a further statement at some point over the summer.

During Jansen’s tenure, BT grappled with the government-enforced order to remove Huawei infrastructure from its network, which was estimated to cost the company £500m.

“Mr Jansen had been looking on increasingly shaky ground at BT. The company’s shares have almost halved since he took over in early 2019, while recent inflammatory comments about the role of fibre altnets drew concern from Ofcom,” said Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight.

Beyond telecommunications, BT has increased its corporate innovation activity. Drones are a big focus for the firm and it began trials of liquid hydrogen-powered drones to deliver 5G and 4G internet at the start of the year.

BT also made a £5m investment in drone software company Altitude Angel in January.