technologyreseller.co.uk 33 As Managing Director of BT Wholesale, part of BT Business, Thea Sztejka looks after a wide range of B2B solutions, covering infrastructure, voice and mobile, data and managed services. Or, as she put it to Technology Reseller “more or less anything indirect where BT Wholesale’s customer bills the end customer”. (There is also some commission-only indirect business in the rest of BT Business, which, Openreach aside, is responsible for any BT‑branded B2B solution). Sztejka estimates that ‘the partner space’ i.e. indirect wholesale voice solutions, mobile, broadband and Ethernet, makes up about one third of BT Wholesale’s revenue, with three other areas each contributing about 20%. They are the resale of network infrastructure (i.e. space, power and cooling in data centres, exchanges, small cells, backhaul connectivity and media & broadcast); MVNO (mobile virtual network operator); and carrier trading (international voice, wholesale, roaming and messaging). It was the partner space that Technology Reseller was most interested in when we spoke to Sztejka earlier this year. Technology Reseller (TR): Thea, you were appointed managing director of BT Wholesale in October 2024. How would you describe the last 18 months? Thea Sztejka (TS): I’m an ex-accountant. I had a stint in commercial roles and then moved into strategy. I came into BT Wholesale in mid-2019 and quite quickly became Commercial Director, so I see everything through a commercial and strategic lens. Taking on the leadership of the team, I have tried to have a focus on data and strategy, but also an even firmer focus on listening to partners, because ultimately that’s how you become successful – by making your customers happy. In March 2025, Jon James joined BT Business as CEO. He has a really firm focus on the operational aspects of running a business and I’ve had quite a firm steer to move into that operational space and understand the IT architecture, how we’re modernising the portfolio, moving on from legacy, and how we’re going to serve partners better by having this digital layer and using APIs to make it as frictionless as possible to deal with us. That’s been amazing, actually. We are very clear about the direction in which we’re heading. TR: When you took up your new role I think you said that your aims were to simplify processes, to be more partner-focused and to keep developing your infrastructure and solutions. What achievements in your first year are you most proud of? TS: We’ve had a number of launches, including things like Operator Connect on Microsoft AppSource. We’ve managed to improve onboarding and provisioning and streamline that partner experience; we’ve launched Teams Phone Mobile; we’ve scaled what we do with a proposition we call Complete Mobile, which is an indirect EE proposition; and we’ve added a number of APIs to the It is worth noting that greenwashing resulting from accidental overstatement of sustainability achievements would, most likely, fail to meet the ‘dishonesty’ threshold needed to establish fraud by false representation. However, that distinction offers cold comfort for organisations facing investigation. How should tech companies react? The government guidance sets out six principles for a fraud prevention framework, including top-level commitment from leadership, regular risk assessments, proportionate procedures, thorough due diligence, staff training and ongoing monitoring. For environmental claims specifically, businesses making the claims are responsible for gathering the evidence needed from the entire supply chain. The CMA’s recent guidance emphasises that businesses across the supply chain must support these efforts to ensure that environmental claims are accurate, whether made directly, indirectly or by passing information up the chain, so that information given to consumers about environmental credentials is accurate and not misleading. In practice, this means tech companies should conduct annual checks, spot checks and ensure data flows up the supply chain. If relying on third parties for information, it remains the company’s responsibility to verify accuracy. The Green Claims Code’s six core principles remain the benchmark to operate against – claims must be truthful and accurate, clear and unambiguous, not omit important information, make fair and meaningful comparisons, consider the full lifecycle and be substantiated with robust evidence. Protecting against a dual threat While greenwashing may not be a fundamentally new issue, the enforcement landscape and risk has changed. Tech companies promoting AI or other digital tools as environmentally friendly now face dual risks: civil enforcement for misleading claims and potential criminal prosecution if fraud prevention procedures are inadequate. The silver lining is that this more stringent regime will likely benefit ethical and principled brands that do their compliance properly by cracking down on those trying to gain an advantage through inaccurate and unfair claims. https://www.mills-reeve.com Q&A continued... Thea Sztejka Q&A With Thea Sztejka, Managing Director of BT Wholesale
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