BT Names Ian Livingston to succeed Ben Verwaayen

BT has named Ian Livingston to succeed Ben Verwaayen as chief executive of BT Group on June 1st 2008. Livingston joined BT as group finance director in 2002. He took over as chief executive of BT Retail in 2005 and under his leadership BT Retail has returned to growth and sharply increased profitability. Livingston’s current role will be filled by Gavin Patterson, currently group managing director of BT’s consumer division.

Verwaayen joined BT in January 2002 from Lucent Technologies, where he was Vice-Chairman of the management board. He led BT through a series of transformations, including its push into broadband, the launch of the 21CN initiative, the expansion of BT Global Services, and the creation of Openreach, which gives all communication providers in the UK equal network access.http://www.btplc.com