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Openreach appoints Lowther as MD for Commercial

December 9, 2025

Openreach has announced the appointment of James Lowther as its new Managing Director for Commercial, effective January 2026. Lowther will join the Openreach Executive team and report to Deputy CEO, Katie Milligan, as the company strengthens its leadership during a pivotal period for the UK broadband market.

Lowther brings more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications sector. He began his career at BT before holding senior roles at Virgin Media, where he led strategy and propositions, and later moved to Sweden to head the consumer division at Com Hem (now Tele2 Group). Lowther subsequently served as Chief Marketing Officer at Gigaclear and Group Chief Commercial Officer at Lebara, before becoming CEO of Truespeed, where he spearheaded the company’s expansion by accelerating their full-fibre rollout and overseeing the merger with County Broadband.

Milligan commented: “James brings exceptional experience and insight from across the telecoms industry, including international markets. His skills and leadership will be really valuable as we strengthen our commercial strategy and continue to connect millions of customers to our new full fibre network in the most competitive market we’ve ever faced.”

Lowther added: “I’m excited to be joining Openreach at a time when the UK broadband market has become more competitive than ever. My focus is on helping Katie and the Openreach team to sharpen our commercial edge by listening to customers, making it simpler to do business with us and developing propositions that accelerate the adoption of our fast, reliable and secure connectivity. Our mission is critical for the UK and I’m really looking forward to working closely with Communications Providers to drive brilliant outcomes for their businesses, their customers and for Openreach.”

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