BT picks up BG's Simon Lowth

BT Group announced the appointment of Simon Lowth as group finance director on Friday, also assigning him an executive board director.

Lowth was being hired to replace the FTSE 100 firm's current finance director, Tony Chanmugam, following a handover period. Chanmugam was moving within BT to focus on the integration of acquisition EE.

The company said Lowth was most recently CFO and executive director at oil and gas giant BG Group, joining it in 2013. There he held board-level responsibility for the company's finance, internal audit, risk management, investor relations, corporate strategy and merger and acquisition activities. Lowth stepped down in February following BG's integration with Shell.

Prior to that, Lowth was CFO and executive director at AstraZeneca, and corporate strategy director at ScottishPower.

"I'm delighted to be joining BT at such an exciting time. Having acquired one of the UK's leading mobile operators and with superfast fibre broadband available to well over 24 million homes, BT is well-placed for growth in consumer, business and wholesale markets," Lowth said on his appointment.

"I look forward to working with Gavin Patterson and the rest of BT's strong team to build upon the solid strategic and financial foundations already in place."

BT Group chief executive Gavin Patterson said Lowth was bringing a wealth of experience to the company.