His responsibilities are now in the hands of the chief operating officer for BT in the Americas. “Dave Disley is taking over his portfolio,” Bas Burger, CEO of BT Global Services told Capacity.
Disley is based in Dallas, said Burger, adding that London-based Staples has already left the group.
Capacity tried to contact Staples for a comment on the move but could not get a connection to the mobile number he used in his BT days. Capacity has left a message for him on his LinkedIn account, which has not yet been updated to reflect his departure.
Staples did represent BT at the Capacity Europe conference at the end of October – having told a number of people in the industry of his likely departure following what he called “a fairly substantial change in the Global Services structure”. Burger has put the changes into effect since he moved from the US to the UK in 2017 to be CEO of the division.
Burger told Capacity that Global Services is “aiming to become a much more lean and fit, future-focused organisation”, that will focus on three service areas. Capacity will publish a full version of the interview with Burger in the December/January issue, due out in early December.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Staples joined BT in 2011 as part of “a unique scheme targeting top-tier MBA graduates to deliver strategic initiatives and management priorities across BT Group”.
With a degree in business administration systems from Monash University in Australia, Staples first worked at GE Capital in Australia and the US.
Disley worked at BT in the UK from 1999 until 2013, when he moved to the company’s Dallas office as VP of global accounts in BT Global Services.
A US-based BT staff member told Capacity about Disley, on condition of anonymity: “If I had one word that colleagues would use to describe Dave it would be ‘outstanding’.”
Burger moved to London last year having previously been president of BT in the Americas. Jennifer Artley, who was COO, the role Disley has now, took over Burger’s Americas job and she will be Disley’s manager, said Burger. Artley spent 13 years with Level 3 until 2013 before working for Equinix for five months in 2014 and then jumping quickly to BT.
