BT today announces the appointment of Tony Chanmugam as Group Finance Director for BT Group. He also joins the BT Group Board. Tony succeeds Hanif Lalani who was recently appointed Chief Executive of BT Global Services.

Tony moves from his current positions as Chief Financial Officer of BT Retail, and as Managing Director of BT Enterprises.

During the four years he has spent at BT Retail, Tony has been pivotal in the transformation of the £8.5 billion business which serves the consumer and SME markets in the UK and Ireland. Profits have been turned around from double digit decline into healthy growth. At the same time, he has led efficiency programmes which have delivered annualised cost savings of around £1 billion.

Tony is also currently Managing Director of BT Enterprises, the division of BT Retail which includes Conferencing, Redcare (Security Service), Directories, Payphones, DABS (Internet Retailing) and Expedite (Multi-channel Retail Solutions). This is a growing and profitable business with revenues of approx £800 million in the last financial year.

From 1997 to 2004, Tony was Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Operating Officer at BT Global Solutions, a business serving multinational organisations in more than 100 countries. While he was there, the division delivered annual growth of approximately 30% to achieve annual revenues of around £3 billion. At the same time, it turned from a loss making into a strongly and consistently profitable operation. Global Solutions has since become part of BT Global Services.

Tony Chanmugam, said: “In a business where prices are falling all the time, cost and process transformation are the critical drivers of profitable growth. This has been my principal focus in BT Retail, and at BT Global Solutions before that. I am extremely excited about the opportunity to apply the same determination to driving cost transformation through the BT Group.”

Ian Livingston, Chief Executive of BT Group, welcomed the appointment, “In each of the senior positions he has held in BT, Tony Chanmugam has delivered transformational change and well controlled, profitable businesses. Tony will now accelerate the pace of change across BT. I congratulate him on his appointment and welcome him onto the BT Group Board.”

Tony’s appointment takes immediate effect and follows a thorough recruitment process in which both internal and external candidates were considered.