New Severn Trent CEO lifts women FTSE 100 bosses to four
LONDON (Reuters) - BT executive Liv Garfield was named as chief executive of Severn Trent on Monday, taking the number of women running FTSE 100 companies to four.
The 38-year-old, who has most recently spearheaded BT's 2.5 billion pound ($4 billion) super-fast broadband rollout, will take up the new job in Spring 2014.
She joins Alison Cooper at Imperial Tobacco , easyJet's Carolyn McCall and Angela Ahrendts at Burberry as the fourth woman CEO in the blue-riband index.
Ahrendts is due to join Apple next year but Moya Greene, who runs Royal Mail , may well see her newly listed company promoted to the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> when the index is reviewed in December.
Garfield replaces Tony Wray who spurned three takeover bids from a Canadian-led consortium in June. Wray became chief executive in October 2007.
Analysts said her move was a blow for BT, where she held several top positions including head of strategy. Shares in BT, which said it would announce a replacement in due course, initially fell 1 percent before recovering to be flat. Shares in Severn Trent were down 0.2 percent.
"It has been a tough decision but I leave Openreach in fantastic shape and have every confidence it will continue to thrive," Garfield said.
She will be eligible for a bonus of 120 percent of her 650,000 pound salary, plus a 25 percent pension contribution.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Paul Sandle and Louise Ireland)
