Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBT Group is set to appoint Patricia Cobian as its new CFO, succeeding Simon Lowth. Cobian, from Virgin Media O2, will be BT's first female finance chief.
(Reuters) -BT Group, Britain's biggest broadband and mobile services provider, is set to name Virgin Media O2's chief financial officer, Patricia Cobian, as its first female finance chief, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
Cobian held the finance chief position at Telefonica's UK mobile network O2 since 2016, before transitioning to the same role at Virgin Media O2 following the completion of the 50-50 joint venture between Telefonica and Liberty Global in 2021.
BT and Virgin Media O2 declined to comment on the report.
Sky News reported on Monday that BT was looking for a new finance chief to succeed Simon Lowth, who will retire within a year. He was appointed BT CFO in 2016.
Cobian would join BT at a time when it is looking to cut costs through layoffs and advances in artificial intelligence.
"Depending on what we learn from AI . . . there may be an opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade," Chief Executive Allison Kirkby told Financial Times in June.
The company said in 2023 that it planned to cut as many as 55,000 jobs, including contractors, by 2030.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
Patricia Cobian, formerly the CFO at Virgin Media O2, is set to become BT's first female finance chief.
Simon Lowth has been the CFO of BT since 2016 and is expected to retire within a year.
BT announced plans to cut as many as 55,000 jobs, including contractors, by 2030 as part of its cost-cutting measures.
BT is looking to leverage advances in artificial intelligence to potentially reduce its size further by the end of the decade.
Patricia Cobian transitioned to Virgin Media O2 after the completion of the 50-50 joint venture between Virgin Media and O2.
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