The path was cleared for Ian Livingston, the head of BT’s retail division, to win the top job at the telecoms giant yesterday after his main internal rival quit the company.

Andy Green, BT’s head of strategy and operations, will leave at the end of the year to become chief executive of LogicaCMG, the troubled Anglo-Dutch computer services company.

Analysts and other industry sources said that Mr Livingston, 43, a former Dixons finance director, was now the most likely successor to Ben Verwaayen, BT’s chief executive.

Mr Verwaayen has insisted that he has no plans to leave. However, industry sources believe the Dutchman, who has enjoyed huge success at the group since taking over in February 2002, is likely to announce his departure plans next year.

Ian Watt, of Enders Analysis, the telecoms and media consultancy, said: “While BT will, of course, look at external candidates, within the company Andy and Ian have for some time been seen as the frontrunners to take over the top job.”

A spokesman for BT said: “Ben has shown no signs of going anywhere and is very happy working here at BT.”

Mr Livingston, who joined BT as group finance director in 2002, has boosted the fortunes of its retail division since taking over in 2004, through a combination of cost-cutting and marketing.

The group’s retail share of new broadband customers hit 38 per cent in the last quarter, up from 32 per cent at the end of 2004-05. The division has also reported strong earnings growth.

Mr Livingston is well-regarded by analysts, who like his combination of financial and marketing skills. As the head of the consumer division, he has become a public face of the company.

Mr Green is a BT lifer – he has been there 21 years – who first made his mark with the successful turnaround of the group’s payphone division in the 1980s at a time when it was under criticism over the state of the boxes.

He successfully managed BT’s global services division, which manages telecoms networks of big companies, before a recent move to a new role heading a critical company-wide restructuring project aimed at improving the way that BT does business.

Sources suggested that he may have received an indication that the door to the top job at BT had closed on him.

Paul Reynolds, the head of BT’s key wholesale division, also recently quit the group to become chief executive of Telecom New Zealand.

At Logica, Mr Green replaces Martin Read, who left in May following an emergency board meeting that was called after a profit warning and a share-price plunge.

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