BT Group appoints Allison Kirkby as chief executive

BT Group plc has announced the appointment of Allison Kirkby as chief executive. She will take over from Philip Jansen around the end of January 2024. Philip will be available to support the handover until the end of March 2024.

Allison who has been a non-executive director at BT Group since 2019 and is also a non-executive director, is taking up the new role at BT Group from Sweden-headquartered digital communications and telecommunications provider Telia Company where she has been working as president & CEO since early 2020. 

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.

Earlier in her career she held a number of financial and operational roles at Procter & Gamble (1990-2010) and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1990 whilst at Guinness plc.  

“Allison 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,” said Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman.

“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,” said Allison.