BT executive Liv Garfield was named as chief executive of Severn Trent yesterday, taking the number of women running FTSE 100 companies to four.

The 38-year-old, who has most recently spearheaded BT’s 2.5 billion pound ($4 billion) super-fast broadband rollout, will take up the new job in Spring 2014.

She joins Alison Cooper at Imperial Tobacco, easyJet’s Carolyn McCall and Angela Ahrendts at Burberry as the fourth woman chief executive in the blue-riband index.

Ahrendts is due to join Apple next year but Moya Greene, who runs Royal Mail, may well see her newly listed company promoted to the FTSE 100 when the index is reviewed in December.

Garfield replaces Tony Wray who spurned three takeover bids from a Canadian-led consortium in June. – (Reuters)