New Severn Trent CEO lifts women FTSE 100 bosses to four

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - BT executive Liv Garfield was named as chief executive of Severn Trent on Monday, 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 CEO 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. Wray became chief executive in October 2007.

Analysts said her move was a blow for BT, where she held several top positions including head of strategy. Shares in BT, which said it would announce a replacement in due course, initially fell 1 percent before recovering to be flat. Shares in Severn Trent were down 0.2 percent.

"It has been a tough decision but I leave Openreach in fantastic shape and have every confidence it will continue to thrive," Garfield said.

She will be eligible for a bonus of 120 percent of her 650,000 pound salary, plus a 25 percent pension contribution.