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he boss of BT Group is planning to step down within the next year and the search for his successor has begun, the telecoms giant has announced.
Group chief executive Philip Jansen intends to leave at an “appropriate moment” over the next 12 months.
BT said the board has already begun a formal succession process, and will share an update on progress over the summer.
It comes less than two months after the group revealed plans to cut up to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade, amounting to about 40% of its total workforce.
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
Mr Jansen said the telecoms firm wants to advance its use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, with a shift to customers using its app for things such as account servicing and upgrades rather than relying on call centres.
Around 10,000 jobs will go in its quest for greater digitisation.
BT is also nearing the completion of the rollout of ultrafast full fibre broadband across the UK, through its subsidiary Openreach, and 5G network.
Some 35,000 jobs will disappear once the engineering work is complete and the firm begins to retreat from running older double networks.
The firm was already steaming ahead with expansive cost-cutting plans under Mr Jansen’s leadership, with a £3 billion savings target by the end of the 2024 to 2025 financial year.
Mr Jansen, who took on the top job at BT from Worldpay in early 2019, 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 building like fury, have now passed over 11 million homes with fibre, have got 5G service to 68% 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.”
BT Group’s chairman Adam Crozier said: “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.
“Whilst we are still in the early years of that transformation we are on track to deliver.”
He added that it will remain “business as usual” while it searches for a new chief executive.
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