Sir Michael Rake, the new chairman-elect of BT, yesterday declared his experience in emerging markets including India and China as among the key assets that he would bring to the £600,000-a-year post.

Sir Michael, a career accountant who chairs KMPG’s international business, was named yesterday as the man who will take over from Sir Christopher Bland in September.

Though he has not run a public company, he sought to defend the appointment by highlighting his broad experience in the global markets in which BT is increasingly seeking to build a presence.

The new chairman-elect, who was not deemed a likely contender for the job, also raised the prospect of BT conducting more acquisitions, stating that he was “not nervous about taking risks”.

Among his first tasks, Sir Michael said, would be a review of the composition of the board. The shortage of women on the board, which has only one female nonexecutive on it, would be one area that he plans to examine.

Sir Michael will be paid £600,000 for two to three days work a week. He insisted that there was no conflict of interest in his appointment because he had not directly worked on a BT account. KPMG specialises in consulting work with telecoms companies but it was not BT’s auditor.

Before becoming KPMG’s international chairman Sir Michael was the group’s European chairman. He will take over from Sir Christopher at a time when investors are heaping praise on BT’s success at transforming itself from an old-fashioned lines-and-wires business into a modern telecoms and IT company.

When Sir Christopher left the BBC to take over the post in 2001, BT was in a financial mess following the dot-com crash. Together with Ben Verwaayen, his nononsense chief executive, he slashed debt from £30 billion to £7.5 billion, shepherded through the biggest rights issue in British history, restored the dividend and demerged the mobile phone arm.

BT has also successfully moved into a host of “new wave” services centred around broadband and built up a £8.6 billion revenue business providing IT and telecoms services to businesses in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Sir Christopher, who had planned to leave in July, will stay on until September when Sir Michael will take over the reins.

At BT Sir Michael’s key work will include overseeing a smooth succession for when Ben Verwaayen, its chief executive, elects to move on.

He will also be called on to help the group in its bid to fend off increasing competition in the residential market with big-name players like BSkyB and a renewed cable offering fighting for the space in people’s sitting rooms.

Sir Christopher’s last tasks at the group are expected to include a move to raise billions in debt against its new Openreach unit, which oversees access to its local network.

The move could help the group to fend off any private equity approach.

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