14 April 2008
BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen has stepped down from his position after six years behind the desk.
Verwaayen will be replaced by BT Retail head Ian Livingstone, who takes up the post on 1 June.
The move comes barely a week after Verwaayen received an honorary KBE for services to the telecoms industry.
BT chairman Mike Rake lauded Verwaayen’s contribution to the firm, crediting him with "transforming BT from being a deeply troubled organisation into a thriving business".
John Carter, managing director at BT’s distribution partner DMSL, said Verwaayen’s legacy would be seen as transforming the telecoms company into a more agile player.
"It will be a hard act to follow, but I think BT is pretty well positioned and in a good place to expand from," he said.
A former vice-chairman at Lucent prior to its merger with Alcatel, Verwaayen joined BT in 2002 and led the firm’s aggressive expansion into the broadband market as well as creating the Openreach programme. It is not yet clear what his next move will be and BT would not comment further.
