Green Leaves BT

Andy Green, BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA)'s CEO of group strategy and operations, will leave BT at the end of this year to take the helm at LogicaCMG plc (London/Amsterdam: LOG), ending a 21-year career at the British telecom operator. (See Green Leaves BT for Logica.)

Green is the second BT big-wig to leave the company in recent months. Paul Reynolds, who was CEO of BT Wholesale , left last month to take the chief executive position at Telecom New Zealand Ltd. (NYSE: NZT; New Zealand: TEL). (See Reynolds Leaving BT to Run TNZ and 21CN Moves On.)

Green has only been in his new role as head of group strategy and operations since May, when BT announced its new corporate structure. At the time, there was speculation that Green was being positioned to take over from BT CEO Ben Verwaayen. But BT denied that this was the case. (See BT Revamps, Creates New Units , BT Unveils New Structure, and BT Unveils Strategy Team.)

Green will best be remembered for his performance as chief executive of BT Global Services from 2001 to early 2007, where he picked up the remnants of the ill-fated Concert joint venture with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and built the business into a leading global networking and IT services company. This track record in building an international operation serving multinational corporations with network and IT services is likely to be what attracted LogicaCMG to him. (See BT Outlines Global Vision and BT Plans Further Global Push.)

Green was responsible for many acquisitions and partnerships that either expanded the international reach of BT Global Services or added IT services and system integration skills to the group. (See BT Buys Infonet, BT Takes Control of Albacom, BT Goes Global – Again!, BT Completes Radianz Acquisition, M&A Activities Firm Up BT Global, BT Buys TNS, BT Wins Fiat, Buys Atlanet, BT Gets Back Into Japan, Eurobites: BT Buys Again, BT Acquires Counterpane, BT Buys INS, BT Buys I2I, BT Receives India Licenses, and BT Acquires INS Group.)

Meantime, over at LogicaCMG, the company's shares leapt 10 percent in late morning trading on the London Stock Exchange in response to the news that the company had poached Green from BT. Green will start in his new position as of January 1, 2008.

A BT spokesman says the company will not replace Green. Al-Noor Ramji, CEO of BT Design, and Roel Louwhoff, CEO of BT Operate, will now report directly to CEO Verwaayen.

In a press release, Verwaayen said: "Andy has made a tremendous contribution to BT. He has led a remarkable turnaround in our global business, and helped set the company on its current course of profitable growth."

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading