BT Group has announced South African Jan du Plessis as the new chairman.
He will be taking over from Mike Rake, who has been at the helm for the past 10 years.
Du Plessis has been chairman of Rio Tinto since 2009 having joined the board in 2008.
He has also held a number of other senior non-executive roles, including as a director and chairman of SABMiller from September 2014 and July 2015 respectively until October 2016, and as director and senior independent director of Marks & Spencer from 2008 and 2012 respectively until March 2015.
During his eight-year stint as Rio chairman, Du Plessis launched a multi-billion rights issue to repair the miner's balance sheet and saw off a takeover approach from Glencore. He also played a vital role in SABMiller's R1.35 trillion sale to Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Nick Rose who, as senior independent director at BT, led the planned succession process to appoint the new chairman, said: "Our desire was to find someone with deep experience of leading high profile organisations and who would also have credibility with our key stakeholders. We ran a thorough process to ensure we identified the very best candidate to lead the company. Jan is the unanimous choice of the board."
Speaking about the appointment, Rake said: "I am delighted Du Plessis has been chosen to succeed me as chairman. Over the past 10 years, BT has made huge progress and we have transformed and expanded the business. Whilst clearly there are continuing challenges, the performance of the company remains on track. This gives me great confidence in its future. I wish him every success as he leads the company at this important time."
The 63-year-old South African will start in the role on 1 November 2017, after joining the board as a non-executive director on 1 June 2017. He will remain as chairman of Rio Tinto until the mining company's AGM in April 2018 where his successor will be named.
Du Plessis said: "I am honoured to have been asked to become BT's chairman. BT is a great British company with excellent people and Rake has done an outstanding job as chairman over the last 10 years. This is an important time for the company and I look forward to working with Gavin and his team to help BT continue to support Britain's digital future."
BT is a British communications services company which provides networked IT and telecommunications services to its global customers. BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: global services, business and public sector, consumer, EE, wholesale and ventures, and open reach.
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