Kirkby (pictured) joined TDC in December 2018, after leaving Swedish operator Tele2 on its merger earlier in the year with cable company Com Hem. She was first CFO and then CEO of Tele2, which has operations with 17 million customers in Sweden, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Germany and Kazakhstan.
Last month Tele2 completed the merger of its Netherlands operation with T-Mobile Netherlands, in which Deutsche Telekom holds 75%.
The news means she joins a board that includes Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom – BT’s largest shareholder – as well as Matthew Key, former CEO of Telefónica Europe and Telefónica Digital, as well as BT’s own new CEO, Philip Jansen, who started his role just 12 days ago.
Höttges, Key and Kirkby, who trained as an accountant, are all non-executive directors; Kirkby joins the BT board in mid-March.
BT chairman Jan du Plessis said: “Allison brings to the BT Board valuable and recent experience in the international telecommunications sector. This, combined with her strong experience in driving performance, improving customer service and delivering shareholder value, makes her an excellent addition to the board.”
Earlier in her career Kirkby worked at Procter & Gamble, cable operator Virgin Media and TV production company Shine Media, all in senior financial roles. She is also a non-exec on the board of Greggs, the UK fast food group.
