Hanif Lalani

Hanif Mohamed Lalani is a British business executive and the former CEO of BT Global Services, a telecommunications company. Born in Uganda, he moved to the United Kingdom at the age of ten, and in 1983, he joined BT Group. The telecommunications professional was named “Finance Director of the Year” from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

In 2012, Lalani was fined €1.5 million by the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers). His family members were fined an extra €4.6 million because they profited from BT’s plan to purchase Net2S. Net2S was a listed Paris company, and the deal valued the firm at €68.5 million. In 2007, BT acquired 68.6% of the Paris firm.

Then, Lalani was the Group Finance Director at BT. Investigations revealed that his relatives bought shares in Net2S, expecting the buy order from BT. Lalani resigned as CEO of BT Global Services in 2010. During his BT career, he was nominated for Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) – by the UK government, an honour officially presented by the Queen. Following the insider trading implications, the Queen withdrew the honour from Lalani.