Severn Trent poaches BT executive for CEO Severn Trent is to become one of only three FTSE 100 companies with a female boss after announcing that Liv Garfield would leave BT to become chief executive of the water utility. Ms Garfield, who spearheaded the rollout of BT's fibre network across Britain, will replace Tony Wray in spring 2014, the companies said on Monday. She will receive a salary of £650,000, with an annual bonus and long term incentive plan worth a maximum of 120 per cent of her salary. The departure of Burberry Group chief executive Angela Ahrendts in October means Ms Garfield, along with Alison Cooper of Imperial Tobacco and Carolyn McCall of easyJet are the only women in charge at the UK's biggest listed companies. Ms Garfield, 37, has been at BT since 2002 and has been chief executive of its Openreach division since 2011 and oversaw BT's £2.5bn commercial rollout of fibre broadband. Under her tenure, the availability of fibre over BT's network has risen from around 4m premises to more than 17m. She is also a non-executive director of Tesco. She joins Severn Trent as utility companies face intense political scrutiny over pricing. Water and sewerage bills have risen over the past four years in line with inflation, outstripping rises in average household income. Prime Minister David Cameron said in early November that the government would take action on water bills. Unlike gas and electricity, households cannot switch their water supplier. Under an agreement stretching back to 2009, the 19 water companies regulated by Ofwat have been set an average limit of increasing bills by 0.5 percentage points above inflation next April. Owen Paterson, environment secretary, has written to companies including Severn Trent calling on them to reconsider looming price hikes to help customers struggling with household bills. In December, all water companies will submit their plans for the next price review, which will eventually determine how much they can charge from 2015 to 2020. Water regulator Ofwat has already turned down Thames Water's request to increase customer bills by up to 8 per cent next year. Thames had asked to add an extra £29, or 8 per cent, to the annual average household bill for 2014-15. Shares in Severn Trent were down 0.74 per cent to £18.16 in morning trading on Monday. BT shares were trading down more than 1 per cent at 375.9p. "The departure is a loss for BT but understandable given the new CEO role the capable Ms Garfield will be taking up," Espirito Santo Investment Bank said in a note to clients.