Former BT Chairman Jan du Plessis Knighted in 2022 New Year Honours
The UK Government has published the 2022 New Year Honours List, which sees the former Executive Chairman of BT Group, Jan du Plessis, scooping a knighthood for “services to Telecommunications and Business.” Sadly, there were no other honours for members of the wider broadband ISP and UK telecoms community.
Jan du Plessis had been Chairman of BT since November 2017 and oversaw some significant changes at the operator, but all that changed in March 2021 after he announced his intention to retire from the role – thought to be worth £700,000-a-year. The former CEO of ITV, Adam Crozier, was later chosen (here) to replace Jan and officially took on the role last month.
“The improvements we have seen across BT’s business over the last four years are attributable to the dedication and hard work of thousands of BT and Openreach colleagues, who have worked tirelessly to improve the company’s service to its customers and indeed the country, especially since the onset of the pandemic,” said Jan.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I don’t think the KBE is deserved in his case.
Considering Blair received an honour, it could have been worse…
I’m not sure any of them are deserved. The government’s handling of corona has been rubbish. Whitty wanted everyone to get it and we achieve herd immunity. Thank god there was a backlash and a lockdown otherwise the numbers of deaths would be much higher.
Van Tam said “Masks don’t work”, he gave conflicting advice many times and was also one of the herd immunity lot.
Tony Blair needs no explanation. This one is the most disgraceful.
Agreed, all you need to get a knighthood is donate a few million to the party in govt and you get a knighthood.
How utterly meaningless they are now. First Lewis Hamilton, now War criminal Tony Blair. Who’s next? Posthumously giving a knighthood to Jimmy Saville for his charity work?
Another government “pat on the back to our pals” exercise, nothing more.
If only they issued awards for filling websites with endless whining by no marks who have achieved nothing, eh?
Maybe you deserve one for the many many years of constant whining.
Blair the B******* has blood on his hands for going to war and killing millions in the Iraq war and Afhanistan, he diserves a slipper at best.!!!!
£3 million to secure a membership of the House of Lords.
1 million Iraqi war dead secures you a knighthood.
Blair’s honour is at the whim of the Queen and is standard for ex-PMs.
I’d like to honour all the ordinary, anonymous, people who’ve worked tirelessly to keep the country going, paid their taxes, raised children and helped make their communities a better place.
Paying your taxes isn’t required for a knighthood these days though, so that counts out those people.
Not paying all his taxes stopped Goldenballs Beckham getting his knighthood, but apparently he’s now made good and will get his later in the year.
https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1542766/david-beckham-knighthood-tax-avoidance-scheme-net-worth-victoria-beckham-royal-news-latest
And good old Lewis Hamilton? Didn’t stop him did it?
I would like to honour those who complain in the comments here day after day. Their constant whinging is a reminder to be grateful for what I have. For all my faults I could be bitter and twisted, perpetually upset by my lot in life expecting other people to fix it for me.
Special shout out to those fixated on VMO2 and even more so those fixated on symmetrical broadband speeds.
@Anonymous – it speaks volumes to the person complaining about a company such as VMO2 that they allow a company to live entirely rent free in their head where it’s the first thing they think of in the morning to last thing at night. They need more than an honour
@Guest
You do know that Blair is receiving his through the recommendation of Labour not the Tories.
Or maybe changing the outlook of BT so that it was interested in proper capital investment was a good thing and a national service?
I know to most of us on here it was Captain Obvious to invest in FTTP, well NOW anyway.
If you would care to reread all the comments from when he was appointed it did not seem so obvious and there was a great deal of debate on here about bodging along with Gfast.
He wasn’t the most cuddly or lovable guy but he did kick ass and get stuff moving and stopped the rot.
Some might say he didn’t move fast enough. Maybe.
180 turns in PLC’s are never that fast but he did one.
I do salute those who are now behind the investment of £Bn in FTTP wether they be BT or others. UK plc needs that investment to prosper.
So Sir Jan you get a well earned rest having push a dinosaur in the right direction to avoid extinction for the benefit of shareholders, pensioners and customers alike.
@Guest It was peerages, seats in the House of Lords, that were apparently for sale. Knighthoods are not peerages.