He will succeed Jan du Plessis who unexpectedly quit in March amid rumours of boardroom disagreements.
Adam Crozier will join the Board as an independent non-executive director and Chairman Designate with effect from 1 November 2021 and will become Chair with effect from 1 December 2021 when du Plessis retires from the BT Board.
Crozier is currently Chair of Whitbread (the UK’s biggest hotel brand), ASOS (fashion house), Kantar Group (“the data, insights and consulting company”), as well as a non-executive director of Sony Corporation. He has a track record in turning companies around – which might come in very handy.
He has been a CEO in four different sectors, most recently as the CEO of ITV and before that as CEO of Royal Mail Holdings.
Stepping up and down
Crozier will step down as Chair of ASOS on 29 November 2021 and will not put himself forward for re-election at their upcoming annual general meeting. He will also step down as a non-executive director of Sony Corporation with effect from 31 December 2021.
Du Plessis’ resignation was unexpected after four years in the role and sparked speculation of disagreements in the boardroom and most particularly of tensions between the Chair and CEO Philip Jansen who assumed the position in February 2019.
The speculation has been firmly denied by BT.
Jansen said, “I would like to thank Jan for his leadership over the last four years. He has overseen the achievement of significant milestones and the recent improvement in BT’s fortunes and his careful stewardship has left the business in a better, stronger position.”
Not everyone would agree.