DC15-088                                                                       March 03, 2015

Rainer Koppitz to head BT's business in Germany & Austria
BT today announced the appointment of Rainer Koppitz to the position of CEO and Managing Director for its business in Germany and Austria, effective March 1st. Rainer Koppitz will lead these operations to ensure they fully leverage opportunities in future growth areas such as IT services, cloud computing, security, and unified communications & collaboration.

Rainer Koppitz has 25 years' experience in the IT and telecommunications industries. He joins BT from NFON, a leading provider of cloud-based IP telephony solutions, which he led as CEO. Rainer also has a proven track record in the fields of IT services, outsourcing, and systems integration, having led Dell's IT services business in EMEA and having held various senior management positions in Siemens.

Corrado Sciolla, President Europe and Global Telecom Markets at BT Global Services, said, "Germany is one of Europe's biggest markets for IT and communications services, and I am very happy that Rainer Koppitz agreed to lead our local teams to make the most of those great opportunities. He brings a wealth of experience from the IT services and the telecommunications industries, which will help us in bringing our strategy to life. He will take over from Nina Wegner who has been running the business successfully in a challenging economic environment. I wish to thank Nina who has initiated the necessary transformation steps required to optimize the sustainability of our business in the future, and I look forward to continuing working with Nina in her new role as Vice President Strategic Transformation Europe. With her experience she will be able to support me in the transformation we need to deliver in Europe in the coming years."

BT serves around 1,000 customers in Germany and Austria, including two-thirds of the top German (DAX30) companies and some of the largest banks, insurance companies, chemical companies and technology groups. BT operates an extensive high-performance network infrastructure in Germany with its own metropolitan area networks in four key cities and three state-of-the-art data centres across the country.

Rainer Koppitz said, "I am very proud to join a highly skilled, motivated team. Having worked in the industry for more than two decades, I see great opportunities for BT in the German and Austrian markets. During my time at NFON, I worked closely with BT as one of our network partners, and I know BT's network capabilities and the expertise of its teams are second to none. I am particularly thrilled to help further strengthen its position in areas such as cloud-based communication services, security and collaboration. I am also bringing the commitment to further optimize performance and deliver a better future for our customers and for our employees."

Rainer Koppitz will take over as CEO of BT's business in Germany & Austria on 1 March, succeeding Nina Wegner who will move on to her new role as Vice President Strategic Transformation Europe in BT Global Services. She will remain on the board of BT Germany as Managing Director and will continue to support the German team with the management of key customer relationships.
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