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BT nabs Rio Tinto’s chairman

Published: 02:38 09 Mar 2017 EST

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“Our desire was to find someone with deep experience of leading high profile organisations and who would also have credibility with our key stakeholders"

BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) has chosen City grandee Jan du Plessis as the successor of its outgoing chairman, Sir Mike Rake.

The telecoms group has been on the hunt for a replacement for Rake after he said last year that he would step down in 2017 after a decade in the role.

du Plessis will join the board as a non-executive director from 1 June 2017 before becoming chairman from 1 November when Rake will officially depart.

The 63-year-old is currently the chairman of Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO), although not for much longer after the mining giant also confirmed this morning that the South African is stepping down.

Rio said du Plessis, who has been with the company since 2009, will retire no later than the 2018 annual general meeting (AGM) once an “orderly succession process” has been completed.

As well as at Rio, the City veteran has held various board positions at the likes of brewery SABMiller, Marks and Spencer Group Plc (LON:MKS) and British American Tobacco plc (LON:BATS).

“Our desire was to find someone with deep experience of leading high profile organisations and who would also have credibility with our key stakeholders,” said BT’s senior independent director Nick Rose.

“We ran a thorough process to ensure we identified the very best candidate to lead BT. Jan is the unanimous choice of the Board.”

BT is going through something of a rough patch after its share price was hammered following the corruption in its Italian business which was revealed in January.

Back in 2013 Rio was in a similarly bad way after posting its first-ever annual loss.

After overseeing the appointment of a new chief executive that year, du Plessis has helped the miner deliver more than £9bn in shareholder returns and cut costs by £4bn in the years since.

BT shareholders will be hoping he can have a similar effect when he joins his latest high-profile company.

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