BT CEO Ben Verwaayen goodbye

BT Group Plc., the world’s first privatised state telecom company, fair wells current CEO Ben Verwaayen. Commenting on the succession, BT Chairman Sir Mike Rake acknowledged Mr. Verwaayen as the one “who transformed BT from being a deeply troubled organisation into a thriving business with global capability and a clear strategy for the future.”

In Ben Verwaayen's rein BT expanded its Global Services division, providing improved network and IT services to international customers in a period the company was struggling with the cross-industry phenomenon of declining call revenues. Mr. Verwaayen heads BT since 2002 and will step down from the board on June 30. In this 6-year period the outgoing CEO protected BT from an upcoming regulator-caused break up by “selling off” its network to its unavoidable rivals. He seized the opportunity to enter the network IT services market and managed to double the group’s share price between 2004 and 2007while on the same time established Openreach in 2005.

Things in BT aren’t so bright lately though. Past six months saw the shares taking a 30% dive trading not far from the 2002 levels. Although BT has 4.3 million users it isn’t used to steep competition from the likes of BskyB and Carphone Warehouse, which developed their own networks affecting BT Wholesale’s line rental income.

Ian Livingston, BT Head or Retail, takes over the command in very sensitive period when BT considers a complex and costly network upgrade. Market analysts, although still a bit concerned since 7 months ago BT welcomed a new chairman, maintain a strong belief in Livingston’s skills. The new CEO is expected to focus on a much expected detailed delivery of BT's new strategy, why don't we give him some time to prove himself?