BT 2014 Annual Report Download - page 79

76 Governance
This year we have seen a number of changes, both on the Board and in
the executive team.
After ve years as Chief Executive (and 11 years at BT), Ian (now Lord)
Livingston was honoured to be asked to take on a new role as Minister
of State for Trade and Investment in the UK Government and to be
its spokesman in the House of Lords. I would like to thank Ian for the
signicant personal contribution he made both to the development
and the execution of our strategy over his time as our Chief Executive.
The succession plans that we had in place enabled us to move
quickly and appoint Gavin Patterson as the new Chief Executive from
September. Gavin was previously CEO, BT Retail and joined the Board in
June 2008. Gavin has a detailed knowledge of all parts of our business
and a track record of success. He also has considerable previous
experience in the communications sector with Telewest (now Virgin
Media) and in marketing with Procter & Gamble.
I would also like to thank The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, who retired
from the Board in March 2014, for the advice and service she gave
the company since joining in 2008 and in particular as our Senior
Independent Director from July 2009. Nick Rose, former chief nancial
ocer of Diageo and a Board member since January 2011, is now our
Senior Independent Director.
I am delighted to welcome two new non-executive directors to the
Board. Warren East, previously chief executive of ARM Holdings, brings
in-depth experience of the technology industry and joined the Board
on 1 February. We have also announced that Iain Conn of BP will join
us on 1June 2014, bringing a wealth of experience in international
technology and energy markets. I led the recruitment process in
each case with the full involvement and support of the
Nominating
& Governance Committee
as we explain in more detail on page86.
I continue to review the membership of, and range of skills on, our
Board and look to appoint outstanding candidates with a diverse mix
of experience, as we recognise the importance of diversity in its widest
sense in Board eectiveness.
In the year, we separated BT Retail into two new lines of business
BT Business and BT Consumer. This will allow us to better serve our SME
and consumer customers and to better deliver against our strategic
priorities. The Board made two appointments to the
Operating
Committee
in September Graham Sutherland CEO, BT Business and John
Petter CEO, BT Consumer. Both have considerable experience in their
respective businesses.
Lastly, Joe Garner (previously head of the UK bank at HSBC) joined
us in February as the new CEO, Openreach, as LivGareld moved on
to become chief executive of Severn Trent. Liv made a signicant
contribution to BT and in particular to Openreach and I would like to
thank her and wish her every success in her new role. Joe has a proven
track record in customer service improvement and programme delivery
and brings substantial commercial, operational and
regulatory experience.
Every year the Board has a forward programme of key items to consider
and also focuses on the strategic issues for the company. This year
we had in-depth discussions on our network and systems, BT’s brand,
culture, customer service, BT TV and BT Sport and our mobility strategy.
You can read more about our activities on pages80 to 82.
We continue to enhance our eectiveness as a Board and we set
out the progress we have made on a number of areas of improvement
on page82. We have gained greater insight into customer service,
including a visit to BT’s Newcastle contact centre, and have reviewed
competitor activity.
We continue to take an active role in the debates surrounding the
changes in corporate reporting, including the changes in executive
remuneration reporting and voting regimes and the introduction of
the strategic report. We also responded to a number of consultations
including the Financial Reporting Council’s integrated guidance
on risk management, internal control and the going concern basis
of accounting.
I am condent that we have a strong team in place to continue the
successful delivery of our strategy and to make the most of the
opportunities and challenges ahead.
Sir Michael Rake
Chairman
7 May 2014
Chairman’s governance report
We continue to have a strong and dynamic
Board with the right mix of skills and
diversity to deliver and further develop
our{strategy.
Sir Michael Rake
Chairman