Sananikone leaves BT

BT Financial Grouphead of corporate strategy Ouma Sananikone has resigned from the organisation after completing a strategic review of how the combined Westpac, BT and Sagitta businesses will form into a new look BT group.

Sananikone, who departs on August 15, says she has decided to leave the group to pursue other potential challenges in the industry after having gained a great deal of satisfaction from steering the strategy and integration review of the group.

“I’ve completed the strategic review of our operations and that was really the challenge for me in the role — to create a plan of how best the organisation can benefit from the three different businesses,” she says.

Sananikone, who has no specific plans at present regarding her future, says it is likely her role will be split among other BT executives such as head of integration, Jim Fanning.

“We really have been talking about this for a while and the decision is amicable.”

Fanning will be largely responsible for implementing any of Sananikone’s recommendations the group deems applicable.

“The point of the review was really a redefining of our focus, and essentially, a plan of how to best extract the synergies of the combined groups,” she says.

Prior to joining the Westpac group, Sananikone was Sagitta Wealth Management managing director products and marketing, and had acted as interim company chief executive following the departure of Peter Martin back in September 2002.

Before joining Sagitta, Sananikone had been a senior executive withAberdeen Asset Managementafter moving over when it acquired Equity Link, of which she was chief executive officer, in December 2000.