BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) has appointed former Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) and ITV PLC (LSE:ITV) boss and serial non-executive director Adam Crozier as its new chairman.
Crozier, who currently chairs Whitbread PLC (LSE:WTB), ASOS PLC (AIM:ASC), Kantar Group and is a non-exec at Sony (NYSE:SNE), will take over from Jan du Plessis when he retires from BT on 1 December.
BT announced that du Plessis was leaving in March amid reports that chief executive Philip Jansen was unhappy with the speed of restructuring at the telecoms giant and wanted a new chairman to accelerate things.
The telecoms group denied the reports but in a statement today acknowledged that Crozier was a specialist in “turning around organisations” and had led the modernisation and transformation of Royal Mail, another former state monopoly that has struggled to adapt to a changing world.
Crozier will step down as chairman of ASOS before he joins the BT board, said today's statement, and will also give up his role at Sony (NYSE:SNE) at the end of the year.
Jan du Plessis said: "I am delighted Adam is succeeding me. Chairing the board of BT over the past four years has been a tremendous privilege.”
Adam Crozier added: "It is an honour to join the board of BT and to succeed Jan as Chair. BT is a hugely important company, with a critical role to play in building the digital networks and services to support the UK's future.”
In June, French telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi took a 12% stake in BT through his Altice vehicle because of the opportunity for broadband arm Openreach, he said at the time.