Director, Corporate Responsibility BT

2001 – 2009

In 2001 I was appointed Director, Corporate Responsibility and asked to support the BT Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business – a formal board chaired by the BT Chairman. It meant taking on the challenge of integrating all BT efforts to have as positive an impact on society as possible by bringing together the CSR agendas for the environment, community, employees and customers.

A team of 25 experts in environment, communications, climate change, sustainability, community investment and digital inclusion were led by me. It helped make BT’s CSR activity part of the mainstream of BT operations, integrating it into the business strategy and global operations. A robust business case was established, through the introduction of hard measures and in-depth understanding of the cause and effect drivers between selected CSR activity and business results. I targeted an annual investment of £25 million on areas of high leverage and high impact. The results paid back dramatically with annual savings of £365 million and sales tenders of over £2 billion requiring a strong CSR component. This was in addition to proven reputation gain among customers and employees.

Under the theme of ‘better communication for a better world’ I was able to unify and focus all BT’s positive impacts on society. Under my leadership BT enjoyed great success, winning sector leader in the Dow Jones Global Sustainability Index for the eight years of my tenure, the Queen’s Award for Sustainability, and the BITC Company of the Year 2007 for positive impact on society.

Director, BT Millennium Programme

1998 – 2001

BT’s £35 million change programme to improve the communication capability of the UK was established under my leadership. I made the initial proposal for mass scale market education on the back of the successful ‘It’s good to talk’ campaign. A 20 strong team headed by me designed the programme which included launching ‘Talkworks’ – a UK-wide education programme – and delivering the ‘Talk Zone’ at the Dome, using 1,000 BT volunteers. The programme involved six million people directly experiencing skills-based activities and millions more indirectly. BT was successful in the Dome attracting 2.5 million people to a unique educational experience with positive pre- vs. post- research results. It meant me personally managing the complex relationship and contracts with the organisers, delivering to time and on budget despite the challenges surrounding the Dome itself.

Director, BT Customer Communication & BT Brand Marketing

1985 – 1997

I joined BT from ICL in 1985 as part of the new marketing function. During this period I helped BT through a long period of transformation to become more customer focused and was responsible for defining the BT brand and all commercial customer communications – advertising, direct marketing, PR and database co-ordination. As brand manager I helped BT become a much loved and respected brand. I masterminded such high impact campaigns as the ‘Beattie’ family with Maureen Lipman and ‘It’s good to talk’ with Bob Hoskins. At one stage I even ran the 0800 call centres that handled all customer campaign enquiries. A 50 strong multi-disciplinary team led by me operated with an annual budget of £100 million. The concept of integrated media planning was first introduced by me. The results of these campaigns helped shape the modern BT brand, creating a vibrant revenue base by stimulating call growth at unprecedented levels. In 1994 I won the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Award for demonstrating proven results.

Earlier career

Previously I was Head of Worldwide Advertising and Direct Marketing for ICL, introducing the idea of networked computers. My early career was in the advertising business working in a number of roles as a Planner, Account Manager & Director in different agencies (DMB&B, McCann Erickson and Ketchum) serving a wide variety of clients across a number of sectors and markets around the world.

I am a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and from the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School. I am married with three grown children and live with my wife Hilary in a converted barn in the Weald of Kent.

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