BT Group appointed the former chief of Danish digital player Nuuday Jon James as CEO of its business arm, effective from 3 March, replacing Bas Burger who has been charged with exploring options for its international units.

Announced alongside its fiscal Q3 2024 trading update (for the three months to end-December 2024), the move was positioned as being part of an ongoing strategy to fully focus BT Business’ efforts on the UK market.

The operator noted when James joins, former BT Business CEO Burger will be “able to devote all of his time to the optimisation of BT’s international operations”.

Welcoming James to the role, BT Group CEO Allison Kirkby said his “track record in leading businesses through transformation will be hugely valuable as we fully focus BT Business on the UK”.

James left TDC spin-off Nuuday last month, having spent three-and-a-half years at the helm.

He has also held the positions of CEO at Tele2 Netherlands, COO at Com Hem in Sweden and earlier in his career spent more than six-years at UK fixed player Virgin Media.

Burger was in charge of BT Business since the start of 2023, having previously led BT Global Services before its merger with BT’s Enterprise arm to form BT Business.

In May 2024, Kirkby announced a drive to focus the unit on its home market and said it was “exploring options to optimise” operations elsewhere.

Subsequent reports claimed the global part of the business was on the market.

The company already started offloading assets outside of the UK, including a deal to sell its data centre business in the Republic of Ireland announced at the end of 2024.

In its trading update, Kirkby said the optimisation of its international interests was “progressing to plan”.

Results
Elsewhere in the financial update, the company highlighted mobile brand EE rolled out its standalone 5G network to 16 new locations during the quarter, taking the number of urban areas with the technology available to 30.

It also highlighted its ongoing cost-cutting plan was on track, with Kirkby noting the benefit of the measures had “more than offset lower revenue outside the UK and weak handset sales”.

Revenue was down 3 per cent year-on-year to £5.2 billion, with a pre-tax profit of £427 million up 1 per cent. It does not break out net profit figures for fiscal Q3.