BT Group boss Gavin Patterson to step down

The BT Board has commenced their search for a successor to be appointed in the second half of the year

BT Group chief executive Gavin Patterson will step down later this year with a successor to be named soon after.

He will continue in his role until the new boss is named. Patterson has served BT for 14 years , 10 years as a board member and five as CEO.

During his tenure Patterson oversaw the acquisition and integration of network operator EE. He invested beyond BT’s core services expanding its television arm buying football rights.

BT’s Italian arm was guilty of improper accounting practices and “inappropriate behaviour” last year, resulting in the company taking a £225m hit after paying Deutsche Telekom and Orange to avoid legal action over the issue.

BT announced a restructuring of the business where 13,000 jobs will be cut in a bid to £1.5 billion over the next three years with restructuring costs at £800 million.

The company’s last financials saw a three per cent drop in fourth-quarter revenue to £5.967 billion with core earnings rising one per cent to £2.083 billion.

However, the company is also set to hire 6,000 new engineers and front line customer service staff to support its roll out of fibre and 5G networks.

Patterson said: “Throughout that time I’ve been immensely proud of what we’ve achieved, in particular the transformation of the business in recent years with the launch of BT Sport, the purchase and integration of EE, and the agreement to create greater independence for Openreach.

“That, combined with the critical expansion of our superfast broadband network to 27m customers, and our stated ambition to reach 10m homes with ultrafast broadband by the mid-2020s have fundamentally repositioned the company. BT is a great business and with the new management team I’ve recently put in place, is I believe very well positioned to thrive in the future.”