BT names new Consumer head as Allera exits

Claire Gillies, currently EVP of marketing at Bell Canada and president of its Consumer unit, will become the new leader of BT's equivalent business in the spring. She will join the telco in mid-December, working with Allera (pictured) on a transition process that will see him formally pass the baton in April next year.

Gillies is something of an unknown quantity in the UK, having spent the bulk of her quarter-century career at the Canadian incumbent. But even so, the bulk of speculation now centres not on what the newcomer will bring to BT – we're not expecting any major strategy changes, incidentally – but rather on where Allera will go next.

In his official departure announcement, Allera gave little away. He shared the usual pleasantries about his time at BT and noted that he is "looking forward to the next chapter." There was a little more to go on in a social media post though.

"Now is the right time for me to move on to a new chapter in my career, and a new challenge," he said on X (Twitter). "I'll let you know what that is when the time is right."

No actual information in there, but a hint that Allera has something in the pipeline.

There are no obvious vacancies in consumer telecoms, but the UK market is in something of a state of flux, with the Vodafone/Three merger potentially looming and a growing competitive push from Virgin Media O2, which is building fibre, offloading infrastructure assets, and still struggling a bit in mobile. There will be options out there for Allera.

The outgoing exec spent a decade at Three UK in the early noughties, before moving on to EE, where he served as chief commercial officer until the BT buyout in 2016, at which point he replaces Olaf Swantee as the mobile operator's CEO. He became CEO of BT Consumer a year later, and as well as overseeing the integration of EE, was also involved in the telco's fibre broadband push and the parting of ways with its Sport business. That's a wealth of experience that should easily find a home, if it hasn't already.

His replacement's experience is equally as lengthy and similar, albeit slightly less varied. Claire Gillies joined Bell Canada in a consumer marketing role in 2000 and has been there ever since; her two-year stint heading up tech retailer The Source came after it had been acquired by Bell.

The Canadian incumbent faces many of the same challenges as its UK counterpart, which is doubtless why Gillies fits the bill as Allera's replacement. And it suggests that there will be little-to-no change in strategic direction for BT Consumer.

Allera's departure comes relatively hot on the heels on the announcement from BT that it was parting ways with Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Harmeen Mehta, whose arrival it had trumpeted just three years previously. As such, it is tempting to view it as a sign that new CEO Allison Kirkby is shaking things up.

However, it's probably more likely that Allera is on his way out of his own volition. He was widely tipped as the most likely candidate to replace Philip Jansen atop BT before the telco's surprise announcement that is was bringing in Kirkby. He didn't get the job and has had the feelers out for another option.

We can't say for sure that there's no strategic conflict happening behind closed doors at BT but it feels like a safe bet. And we would also put money on Allera being paraded in front of the media by another major telecoms or broader market company in the not-too-distant future.