Openreach UK Appoints James Lowther as New MD for Commercial

National broadband and Ethernet operator Openreach (BT) has today announced the appointment of James Lowther as its new Managing Director (MD) for Commercial, which will become effective from January 2026. The new hire will join the operator’s Executive team and report to Deputy CEO, Katie Milligan.

James is a familiar name in this industry and has over 20 years of experience in it. He began his career at BT before holding senior roles at Virgin Media, where he led strategy and propositions, and later moved to Sweden to head the consumer division at Com Hem (now Tele2 Group). He’s since also been the Chief Marketing Officer at rural broadband ISP Gigaclear and Group Chief Commercial Officer at mobile operator Lebara, before becoming CEO of altnet Truespeed.

Katie Milligan, Deputy CEO of Openreach, said: “James brings exceptional experience and insight from across the telecoms industry, including international markets. His skills and leadership will be really valuable as we strengthen our commercial strategy and continue to connect millions of customers to our new full fibre network in the most competitive market we’ve ever faced.”