News
Simon Lowth will bring a wealth of experience to U.K. telco, CEO Patterson says.
BT on Friday appointed Simon Lowth as its new group finance director, noting that the current holder of the post, Tony Chanmugam will move on to spend some time helping the U.K. incumbent with the integration of its newly-acquired mobile business EE.
Lowth will join the company on 4 July and, following a handover period, will take up Chanmugam’s role. He will join the BT board at an as yet unspecified date.
"Tony [Chanmugam] will then move to focus on integrating the mobile network provider EE into BT, for a period of time," BT said, in a statement.
The telco admitted that it was looking for a new finance chief last month following the emergence of media reports that Chanmugam was planning to leave the company later this year. BT has not disclosed Chanmugam’s long-term plans, but on Friday chief executive Gavin Patterson thanked him for his endeavours at BT, including his seven-year stint as finance director, and wished him luck "in his future enterprises."
"BT is a much stronger business today as a result of the phenomenal role Tony has played in BT’s cost transformation and strategic direction," Patterson said.
The chief executive also talked up the "wealth of experience" Lowth will bring to the role, having served as CFO and board director at a number of major international companies.
"On top of his solid financial acumen, his strong organisational leadership and engineering experience at a number of leading infrastructure companies will be a real asset for BT," he said.
Lowth stepped down as CFO of oil and gas company BG Group in February after just over two years, when the company was taken over by Royal Dutch Shell.
Prior to that he spent six years as finance chief of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, including a three-month stint as its interim CEO. He worked for ScottishPower from 2003 to 2007, taking up the CFO post in 2005, following a 15-year career at consultancy McKinsey.
He has also served as a non-executive director at Standard Chartered Bank since 2010.
Lowth said he is looking forward to joining BT, highlighting in particular the opportunity presented by its EE buy.
"Having acquired one of the U.K.’s leading mobile operators and with superfast fibre broadband available to well over 24 million homes, BT is well-placed for growth in consumer, business and wholesale markets," he said.
