Allison Kirkby new BT Chief Executive
July 31, 2023
By Colin Mann
BT Group has appointed Allison Kirkby as its next Chief Executive, taking over from Philip Jansen in January 2024. Kirkby has been a non-exec director of BT since 2019.
Kirkby has served as President & CEO of Telia Company since early 2020. Telia, headquartered in Sweden, is the market leading digital communications and telecommunications provider to 25 million customers across the Nordic and Baltic region. She moved into the TMT sector in 2010, initially joining Virgin Media, and was most recently President & CEO of TDC (2018-2020), the largest telecommunications company in Denmark, and President & CEO of Tele2 AB (2015-2018) the largest challenger telecommunications company in Sweden and the Baltics.
“The Board is delighted to have appointed Allison as our new Chief Executive,” stated Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman. “She is a proven leader, with deep sector experience and a history of having transformed businesses. I look forward to supporting her as we drive our long-term strategy to transform BT Group, ensuring it delivers for all our stakeholders.”
“I’m incredibly honoured to have been appointed as the next Chief Executive of BT Group,” added Kirkby. “BT is such an important company for the UK, and our many customers both in the UK and internationally and is uniquely placed to help everyone benefit from the rapid advances in digitalisation. Our products and services have never been more important to how our customers live and work, and thanks to the significant investment BT is putting into digital infrastructure and in the modernisation of its services, I see us playing an even more important role going forward. Having been a member of the BT Group Board for the past four years, I’m fully supportive of our strategy and am excited about leading it into its next phase of development, as we grow to support customers, shareholders and the UK economy.”
Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, Telia Company’s Chair of the Board, said: “On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Allison for her leadership, vision and strong focus on value creation over the past three years. She has served during an important and challenging time in Telia’s history and made a positive and lasting impact through a relentless focus on driving a clear growth agenda, digitalisation of our operations and increasing simplicity throughout the organisation. The Board and I regret that Allison has chosen to leave the company, but we wish her success in her future career. I am very happy that Allison stays in her current position until January 31, 2024, at the latest, to ensure we keep up the momentum in strategy execution, while the Board is starting the recruitment process to find the new CEO for Telia.”
“I’m extremely proud of what we have accomplished together these past three years, despite the many headwinds we have faced,” added Kirkby. “Telia makes a difference every day for its customers and communities and the company is well positioned to be even more relevant for all of its customers going forward. It has been a privilege to work alongside so many talented colleagues and leaders across the Nordics and Baltics to create a Better Telia. After almost 10 years of living apart from my family, and the unique opportunity now offered to me in the UK, I have carefully considered and decided to leave Telia and take on a new challenge. In the meantime, I will continue in my role, driving our current agenda forward with full focus and commitment during the remainder of my tenure.”