BT Group Appoints New Chairman Jan du Plessis to Replace Sir Mike Rake

Last year BT revealed that its Chairman, Sir Mike Rake, had agreed to stay on until “at least” September 2017 and in the meantime the UK telecoms giant has been hunting for a replacement, which they appear to have found in the shape of Jan du Plessis (Chairman of mining firm Rio Tinto).

Sir Rake had originally been expected to depart last year, although at the time various reports indicated that BT Group’s independent board members had asked him to stay on for a little longer because their CEO was still considered to be “relatively new.” As a result Sir Rake has now become BT’s longest-serving board member after being in place for a full decade.

The company states that Jan du Plessis will join the Board as a non-executive director from 1st June 2017 and become Chairman with effect from 1st November 2017, when Sir Mike Rake will retire from BT. Jan has been Chairman of Rio Tinto since 2009 and has also held a number of other senior non-executive roles (e.g. Director and Chairman of SABMiller, Director and Senior Independent Director of Marks & Spencer, Group Finance Director of Richemont and Chairman at British American Tobacco).

Sir Mike Rake said:

“I am delighted Jan has been chosen to succeed me as Chairman. Over the past 10 years, BT has made huge progress and we have transformed and expanded the business. Whilst clearly there are continuing challenges, the performance of the company remains on track. This gives me great confidence in its future and I wish Jan every success as he leads BT at this important time.”

Jan du Plessis said:

“I am honoured to have been asked to become BT’s Chairman. BT is a great British company with excellent people and Mike has done an outstanding job as Chairman over the last 10 years. This is an important time for the company and I look forward to working with Gavin and his team to help BT continue to support Britain’s digital future.”

BT claims to have chosen Jan du Plessis because of his “deep experience” of leading high profile organisations and because he’s also said to have “credibility with our key stakeholders.” Jan is the unanimous choice of the Board and we suspect he will be paid something similar to Sir Mike Rake’s £706K for his four-day-a-week role.

No doubt BT Group would probably have preferred to appoint their new Chairman into a climate of some certainty about the future, although negotiations with Ofcom over the future of Openreach are continuing to drag-on and will imminently be coming to a head when the regulator proceeds with its plan to force through their changes by notifying the European Commission (here).