MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- This morning British Telecom announced that it had named Ben Verwaayen as its new chief executive. Verwaayen had served as vice chairman of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU - news), a position he has held for two years. He joined Lucent in June of 1997 as executive vice president. The following is a statement from Lucent Technologies Chairman and CEO Henry Schacht: We will miss Ben's leadership, insights and exceptional business management skills, but we are very proud and happy for him. BT has secured the services of a truly exceptional executive. During his four and a half years with Lucent Technologies, Ben has been instrumental in driving our globalization efforts. He guided us in the development of our new business model designed to better match our resources with the needs of our customers and has played a key role in leading our current restructuring efforts. We will miss him as a Lucent colleague, but we look forward to working with him as the leader of one of our most valued customers. Lucent Technologies Inc. British Telecom (BT)