BT announced it has appointed Simon Lowth as its new group finance director with effect from July 4, replacing Tony Chanmugam following a handover period.
Lowth's first role will be to oversee the financial integration of mobile operator EE into the BT group. The UK incumbent closed the acquisition of EE in January and unveiled a new structure in February that incorporates the EE consumer mobile operations as one of six lines of business within the group.
BT's new finance director brings a wealth of experience to the role. Most recently, Lowth was CFO and executive director of oil and gas giant BG Group. He stepped down in February 2016, following its takeover by Royal Dutch Shell. He has also previously held the position of CFO at AstraZeneca, and Scottish Power.
Lowth is certainly joining BT at an interesting time for the operator, which not only faces the challenge of running a new mobile network but has also recently been told by Ofcom to open up its Openreach infrastructure to rivals, allowing them access to ducts and telegraph poles.
In January, BT appointed Howard Watson as chief of technology because of Watson's experience in integrating networks from his time in the cable industry -- experience that will prove useful as BT integrates its network with that of EE.
In 2015, EE almost doubled the number of 4G subscribers to reach its target of 14 million by the end of the year. The company -- whose brand is to be retained within the BT group for the time being -- also said its 4G network now covered more than 95 per cent of the UK population, and noted that its total number of subscribers increased by 1.8 per cent last year to reach 31.5 million.
BT also sells mobile services under BT Mobile, but on a relatively limited basis.
For more:
- see this BT release
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