BT Business has a new chief executive after hiring Jon James from Danish telecoms provider Nuuday with a brief to “fully focus on the UK”. He starts next month (March), replacing Bas Burger, who was appointed to the role with the merger of the company’s two enterprise divisions in late 2022. Burger “will be able to devote all of his time to the optimisation of BT’s international operations and explore options for the unit”, said BT Group.
James has been in charge at Nuuday since 2021, where he was also recruited by his Alison Kirkby, his new boss at BT Group, when she split Danish national operator TDC into separate infrastructure and services companies, TDC NET and Nuuday, to handle its old tower and fibre units and its consumer and enterprise services, respectively. Kirkby was appointed chief executive at BT Group in the middle of 2023.
James has “led [Nuuday’s] transformation and return to growth”, said BT. He joins BT Business, also as a member of its executive committee, “as it becomes focused on the UK”, it said. Kirkby said: “Jon’s considerable experience from the UK and European telecoms markets, together with his track record in leading businesses through transformation, will be hugely valuable as we fully focus BT Business on the UK.”
As background, the UK telecoms provider said a year ago – at the end of its 2023/24 financial year, when it posted profits had slipped by 31 percent and 55 percent before and after tax – that it was “exploring options to optimise [its] global business” to create a “simpler” UK-centric business. It has a broader target to slash £3 billion of gross annualised costs by 2030. Burger’s new role is to resolve its international business elements.
This, presumably, includes partners, or even buyers, for its developing global network-as-a-service (NaaS) offer, Global Fabric, which stitches together local edge cloud and network services for global enterprises to ‘shop’ for lower-latency compute services via local telecoms operators and data centre partners. A year ago, it said it had 630 partners for local network connectivity and 700 for local data centre services.
Kirkby commented: “As we move into the next phase of BT Group’s transformation, we are sharpening our focus to be better for our customers and the country, by accelerating the modernisation of our operations, and by exploring options to optimise our global business. This will create a simpler BT Group, fully focused on connecting the UK, and well positioned to generate significant growth for all our stakeholders.”
The ongoing consolidation of BT Business, which saw its national (BT Enterprise) and international (BT Global) enterprise divisions merged in late 2022, has also seen the company fold its Division X innovation business, founded in 2022, into its product team within BT Business. James, the unit’s new boss, and in the industry for 30-odd years, has a “track record in business turnarounds”, said BT.
He has worked with private equity houses (2019-2021), Tele2 in the Netherlands (as chief executive; 2017-19), and Swedish cable operator Com Hem (as chief operating officer; 2014-2016). He has also held senior roles at Virgin Media (2007-2013). “BT Business has an unbeatable combination of deep customer relationships and world-class technology expertise,” he said, talking about building a “stronger asset for customers, shareholders, and the UK.”
