Adam Crozier
Asos’ chairman and the former boss of Royal Mail and ITV, Adam Crozier, has stepped away from the business to take over the helm of BT.
Crozier, who has been with the 20-somethings’ fashion and beauty e-tailer for just three years, will stay with the business until the end of November, before joining the telecoms giant.
In his new role, Crozier succeeds Jan du Plessis who announced his retirement in March this year.
BT said its new boss has built “a strong track record of turning around organisations”, and described him as an “experienced chairman with significant operations and transformational experience”.
Throughout his career, Crozier has held leadership roles at the Football Association, Vue and Stage Entertainment.
Upon joining BT, Crozier will step down as the non-executive chairman of Sony, but will keep his chairman position at Kantar Group.
Speaking about his new role, Crozier said it was an “honour” to join the board at BT.
“BT is a hugely important company, with a critical role to play in building the digital networks and services to support the UK’s future.
“I look forward to working with the board, Philip [Jansen, BT’s CEO] and his executive team to create value for all our stakeholders.”
Iain Conn, BT’s Senior Independent Director said the choice had been “unanimous” to appoint Crozier, due to his “significant experience” and track record is large-salce roles.
Asos said it has now begun the process of finding a replacement.
Crozier leaves Asos at a significant time in the business’ history, which recently secured £500m in convertible bonds to fund its global expansion plans.
As well as earmarking the funds for global e-commerce domination, Asos will use some of the cash injection to refinance the business following its take over of high street darling Topshop from the now bust Arcadia group, the group’s first-ever acquisition.
The capital was raised following a record-breaking six month trading period for the retailer, in which gross profits were up 19% on 2020’s books and UK sales grew 39% to £800.4m compared with the previous year.