BT Group, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Europe, on Tuesday announced that Ben Verwaayen, its high-profile CEO for the past six years, will depart the company at the end of June.

And the straight-talking Dutch national, a former Lucent executive, acknowledged that he could be headed back to the U.S. to take a position with a venture capital firm.

"The first thing I am going to do is to make sure we have a seamless handover here at BT and when June comes I will have the time to look around and see what's next," he said. "But venture capital is not out of the question."

A quick poll of communications analysts pick either the venture capital market or the political realm as the the future landing spot for Mr. Verwaayen. 

He is an executive and longtime member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, a Dutch political party.

"Those who bet on the political world would absolutely lose their money," Mr. Verwaayen said. "I participate in the political debate, but I am not a politician."

Mr, Verwaayen took over as CEO of BT in 2002 when the economic environment was forcing BT to change from a slow-footed British monopoly to a 21st century firm with global capability.

By most measures Mr. Verwaayen succeeded at BT.

He initiated a complete broadband overhaul of BT's aging infrastructure. He mended fences with Ofcom, the U.K.'s version of the FCC, during a critical period of regulatory transition for the U.K.

"His impressive achievements [include] sorting out the mess he inherited when he joined BT...and championing the climate change agenda across U.K. industry," said Mike Cansfield, an analyst with Ovum.

Mr. Verwaayen, 56, was awarded an honorary knighthood for services to the communications industry.

If there is one area in which BT did not hit all of its targets during Mr. Verwaayen's tenure, it was in the United States.

Despite a 20-year presence in the U.S., BT is still practically unknown in the world’s biggest economy. This despite the fact that BT Americas has a big enough presence to be considered one of the largest carriers in the U.S.

Under Mr. Verwaayen's watch BT bought a slew of U.S. based companies including Infonet, Radianz, Counterpane, and INS pushing BT into a number of emerging areas. (See London Calling)

This triggered speculation that he might be headed into the VC world.

Ian Livingston, who is currently chief executive of BT Retail, will succeed Mr. Verwaayen.