Main Board committees

The Operating Committee, the key management committee, meets weekly and is chaired by the Chief Executive. The other members are the Group Finance Director and the Chief Executives of BT Retail, BT Wholesale and BT Global Services. The Secretary attends all meetings and the Group HR Director normally attends the meetings. The Committee has collective responsibility for running the group’s business. To do that, it develops BT’s strategy and budget for Board approval, recommends to the Board capital expenditure and investments budgets, monitors financial, operational and customer quality of service performance, reviews the risk register, allocates resources across BT within plans agreed by the Board, plans and delivers major programmes and reviews the senior talent base and succession plans. Within BT’s corporate governance framework, approved by the Board, the Operating Committee can approve, up to limits beyond which Board approval is required, capital expenditure, disposals of fixed assets, investments and divestments. It can delegate these approvals, up to its own limits, to senior executives.
     To meet best corporate governance practice, the Audit Committee, the Remuneration Committee and the Nominating Committee have long been an established part of BT’s system of governance. Each committee has written terms of reference, which are available on our website. The Report of the Audit Committee, the Report of the Nominating Committee and the Report on directors’ remuneration are available.
     The Equality of Access Board (EAB) was established on 1 November 2005, as part of the Undertakings given by BT to Ofcom following Ofcom’s strategic review of telecommunications, to monitor, report and advise BT on BT’s compliance with these Undertakings. The EAB is a committee of the Board, which formally approved the formation of the EAB and its terms of reference. As required by the Undertakings, the EAB comprises five members: Carl Symon, a BT non-executive director and chairman of the EAB; a BT senior executive, Himanshu Raja, Chief Financial Officer, BT Design; and three independent members: Sir Bryan Carsberg, Stephen Pettit and Dr Peter Radley. The EAB reports regularly to the Board. Its terms of reference are available on BT’s website.
     The Board also has a Committee for Responsible and Sustainable Business and a Pension Scheme Performance Review Group.

<< Previous back to top Next >>