Nov 28, 2016
BT names Mike McTighe as chairman of Openreach
BT has pushed ahead with its proposals to firm up the independence of Openreach by naming City veteran Mike McTighe as the chairman of a new independent board at its engineering unit. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, has pushed for a legal separation of the unit within BT. Mr McTighe was a member of Ofcom's board for eight years, leaving in 2015, and his appointment is expected to be welcomed by the regulator, which has demanded a more independent voice at the top of Openreach, given that Clive Selley, chief executive of the division, is a BT lifer. Sir Michael Rake, chairman of BT, said that the appointment of Mr McTighe was significant. The appointment is not in itself enough to soothe Ofcom's concerns that BT has created a "Shell" company called Openreach that does not contain any staff or assets. BT has resisted transferring thousands of staff and billions of pounds of pension liabilities to the newly incorporated Openreach as it believes it will prove disruptive to broadband investment and BT itself.
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