TalkTalk

Founding MD of TalkTalk

I joined The Carphone Warehouse in mid 2002 to write a business plan for an idea that one of their senior managers had had for a new business- a fixed line telecoms network. We pitched this internally and when it was backed I became the founding MD of what was to become TalkTalk. We launched in 2003, running the traffic over the Opal Telecom network who we had acquired the previous autumn.

I later became the COO of a wider Carphone Warehouse Telecoms business which included TalkTalk as well as Fresh, (the wholly owned MVNO), and the Sainsburys landline and mobile products.

My team grew from just me to more than 2,500 spread across the UK, South Africa and India, as we grew both organically and by purchasing VarTec, Tele2, OneTel and AOL with a turnover of more than £750m.

I managed Product, Operations, Marketing and Customer Services divisions as we rolled out line rental and broadband; at one point we took around 75% of gross consumer connections in the UK market.