BT to appoint Virgin Media O2's Cobian as CFO, Telegraph reports

(Reuters) -BT Group, Britain's biggest broadband and mobile services provider, is set to name Virgin Media O2's chief financial officer, Patricia Cobian, as its first female finance chief, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

Cobian held the finance chief position at Telefonica's UK mobile network O2 since 2016, before transitioning to the same role at Virgin Media O2 following the completion of the 50-50 joint venture between Telefonica and Liberty Global in 2021.

BT and Virgin Media O2 declined to comment on the report.

Sky News reported on Monday that BT was looking for a new finance chief to succeed Simon Lowth, who will retire within a year. He was appointed BT CFO in 2016.

Cobian would join BT at a time when it is looking to cut costs through layoffs and advances in artificial intelligence.

"Depending on what we learn from AI . . . there may be an opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade," Chief Executive Allison Kirkby told Financial Times in June.

The company said in 2023 that it planned to cut as many as 55,000 jobs, including contractors, by 2030.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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