Openreach Leadership Team Update
· MD, Strategic Infrastructure and Development, Kim Mears OBE, to retire and remain as Executive adviser and Chair of Welsh Board
· Katie Milligan widens remit to become Chief Commercial Officer
Openreach, the UK’s largest wholesale broadband network, has announced some updates to its leadership team in order to continue delivering against its strategic goals[1].
Kim Mears OBE will retire on 31st March after nearly two decades of service, having joined Openreach in 2006. She will remain as an Executive advisor to Openreach, continue in her role as Chair of the Welsh Board and also take on non-executive roles outside of Openreach.
Katie Milligan will extend her remit, assuming a new role as Chief Commercial Officer. Katie already leads Openreach’s commercial relationships with Communications Provider customers including the likes of BT, SKY, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen, and is accountable for the company's revenue. She also continues to steer the business’ delivery in Northern Ireland and will now expand her role to include Infrastructure Development – working closely with house-builders, local and national governments to deliver commercial and publicly subsidised projects.
Kim has been a key member of the Openreach leadership team for the last ten years. Her achievements include leading the rollout of the Superfast broadband programme, which has helped more than 97% of the UK gain access to download speeds of at least 30 Megabits per second (Mbps). This led to Kim receiving an OBE in 2020 for services to the UK communications industry. She has also been integral in shaping and delivering the next generation of broadband - ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre – which now reaches more than nine million homes and businesses throughout the UK.
At the same time, Kim has built strong, productive relationships with partners, house builders, local and national governments and established the Openreach Wales Board, which represents and guides teams based in the Principality. She has also played a leading role in the company’s work to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.
Clive Selley, Openreach CEO, said: “I want to congratulate Katie on her expanded role. She’s done an incredible job in bringing our customers onboard with full fibre and delivering the highest standards of connectivity in Northern Ireland. I’m also extremely grateful for Kim’s support and counsel throughout my time in Openreach. She has been instrumental in delivering massive engineering and infrastructure projects which continue to have a huge impact on the millions of customers we serve. I’m also pleased that she’ll continue to act as an Executive adviser for Openreach, supporting our push to deliver further broadband upgrades across the country, particularly in rural areas. I wish Kim a very long and happy retirement. “
[1] Annual Report 2022-DIGITAL-online.pdf (openreach.com) see page 66/67 for more information on strategic goals
For further information
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About Openreach
Openreach Limited is the UK’s national digital network business.
We’re 38,000 people, working in every community to connect homes, schools, shops, banks, hospitals, libraries, mobile phone masts, broadcasters, governments and businesses – large and small – to the world.
Our mission is to build the best possible network, with the highest quality service, making sure that everyone in the UK can be connected.
We work on behalf of more than 690 communications providers like BT, SKY, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen, and our broadband network is the biggest in the UK, passing more than 31.8m premises. At more than 197 million kilometers, it’s now long enough to wrap around the world 4,798 times.
Today we’re building an even faster, more reliable and future-proof broadband network, which will be the UK’s digital platform for decades to come. We aim to bring this £15bn ultrafast, Full Fibre network to 25 million premises by December 2026.
We’ve passed more than 9m premises already and are building like fury, reaching an average of 62,000 premises a week.
To help build the new fibre network and deliver better service across the country, we’ve created and filled around 10,000 apprenticeship roles in the last three years.
We’re also building greener – our fibre network uses less energy and helps people cut emissions, and we’re transitioning the UK’s second largest commercial fleet to electric, with a target of 2030.
Openreach is a highly regulated, wholly owned, and independently governed unit of the BT Group. More than 90 per cent of our revenues come from services that are regulated by Ofcom and any company can access our products under equivalent prices, terms and conditions.
For the Half year ended 30 September 2022, we reported revenue of £2,836m
For more information, visit www.openreach.com
