BT chief exec Philip Jansen planning to step down

Jansen joined the company is 2019 and will be leaving at “an appropriate time” in the next 12 months

BT CEO Philip Jansen will be stepping down from his position "at an appropriate moment over the next 12 months".

The telecom firm's nominations committee has been conducting a formal succession process in preparation.

Rumours that BT's board of directors had begun searching for a new chief exec started trickling through in March 2023.

Jansen first joined BT as CEO in 2019 and, according to a report by ISPreview, in this time company's shares have fallen from around 230p to 122p.

In the channel BT is involved in partnership with big vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft, AWS, VMware and PaloAlto Networks.

"Jansen 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 Jansen is something that the board was well prepared for.

"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 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 11 million homes with fibre, have got 5G service to 68 per cent 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."