Openreach CEO Joe Garner announced his resignation on Monday, little more than 18 months after taking on the job, and amid pressure for the company to be split from parent BT.
Garner, who joined the U.K. incumbent from HSBC in February 2014, is leaving to become chief executive of the Nationwide building society. He will leave BT in spring 2016; his successor has not yet been named.
"I’ve greatly enjoyed my time at Openreach and deciding to leave has been an extremely hard decision, but Nationwide is a firm I long-admired during my time in financial services," said Garner, in a statement.
With Garner at the helm, BT’s infrastructure division extended its high-speed broadband footprint to 24 million premises from 18 million.
At the same time, Openreach was under pressure to meet Ofcom’s 60 minimum service targets, including fixing 70% of faults within two days of being notified, and arrange an engineer visit for new line installations within 12 days of being notified, among others.
BT said Garner’s relentless focus on customer services and operational improvement helped Openreach meet or exceed all 60 of Ofcom’s targets.
"Openreach is a stronger and more customer focused business as a result of his leadership," said BT CEO Gavin Patterson.
Whoever BT names as Garner’s successor could one day find themselves CEO of an Openreach that is fully independent of BT.
Ofcom is in the midst of its Strategic Review of Digital Communications. As part of the process, the regulator has said it will consider whether a full split of Openreach from BT will improve competition, quality of service, and foster more investment in networks.
Last week, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao reiterated his position that U.K. Internet users are stuck with slow connections while a growing proportion of European consumers enjoys speeds of 100 Mbps or more. An independent Openreach would have the incentive to redress the balance, he said.
In September, Vodafone, Sky and TalkTalk were among the signatories of an open letter calling for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate Openreach, claiming it is in need of radical reform.
BT maintains that it is one of the few companies willing to invest considerable capital in networks, and that the infrastructure it is putting in place is fit for purpose.
"In my view, it is BT’s investment that has helped the U.K. to become one of the strongest digital economies in the world and I am proud to have contributed. Openreach is now poised to take the U.K. from a superfast to an ultrafast nation and I am confident it can achieve this as part of the BT family," Garner said on Monday.
Patterson said Openreach is a stronger, more customer-focused company thanks to Garner, who "leaves it in good shape as we begin our ultrafast journey."
BT did not say who will become Openreach’s new CEO, but said it will name a successor "in due course".
