Ian Shepherd
Consumer Director of Vodafone UK
Ian Shepherd, Vodaphone UK’s consumer director, is in the forefront of its consumer line promoting some of the newer products and service offerings of the company.
A Spokesman for Vodaphone’s Products
For starters he maximized the internet as a marketing tool to make Vodaphone’s presence felt more online. He has YouTube videos promoting new mobile phones on the Vodaphone network. He gets featured on many mobile phone sites. He has a Twitter site. Being one of the young corporate executives at the helm, Ian doesn’t underestimate the commercial value of social networking sites. His Twitter site is a veritable advertorial source for Vodaphone that not only contains just about the entire company’s commercial consumer portfolio, but also the many public events and corporate announcements that come regularly. Vodaphone’s Free Friday gets a lot of exposure on that site as well.
He is quite busy these days promoting the Vodaphone Access Gateway which is claimed to be the first homebound device that can increase mobile phones signals while in the house or in a building anywhere in the country. Using femtocell technology, the device increases the strength of 3G coverage indoors if the mobile user is having reception problems.
The Right Man for the Job
Vodaphone’s former director for strategy and new business development, Ian Shepherd, took on the new and more challenging role as consumer business director in January 2006. Ian Shepherd is credited with the successful brokering of Vodaphone’s Phones 4U deals with consumers and the operator’s redesign of its retail business operations. From then on, Ian Shepherd took charge of the company’s retail business overseeing its store outlets and distribution network dealing with consumers services and products.
Corporate Restructuring
A spokesperson from Vodaphone has indicated that corporate changes have been taking place to make the company more responsive to the changing business clime. The appointment of Ian Shepherd to the position was initiated by the company’s CEO Nick Read who is responsible for getting the company re-alignment into effect immediately as part of the corporate shake-up that started nine months earlier.
Chris Clark
CEO, BT Ireland
British Telecom board appointed Chris Clark as its CEO of BT Ireland in July of 2007. He joined British Telecom (BT) in 1991 holding various positions in the company over the years, both within the UK and overseas. Prior to his new role, Chris was BT’s director for business transformation in the retail sector where he succeeded to make radical business transformation for the last two years.
Credentials
As the previous CEO of Converged Mobility Operations of BT, Chris led the commercial and operational success across BT’s mobile communications where he became part of the Wireless Broadband Association working to put the WBA into a leading global WiFi alliance.
Between 1999 and 2004, Chris was President of the BT Global Service’s Wholesale Business, where he oversaw 350 people across 16 countries and stood responsible in delivering well over 1.5 billion revenues for BT. This business unit was formed with the merging of BT’s Concert, its international joint venture with AT&T, and its previous European joint venture company. Prior to this, Chris was the CEO for BT’s European company Farland BV.
He had been based in the US for some time where his stint in various key business development positions made him advisor to President and CEO of British Telecom Worldwide. This certainly helped pave the way for his current capacity today as CEO of BT Ireland.
A Daunting Task Ahead
Chris Clark has been CEO in a number of BT companies and this latest appointment brings him to familiar territory as CEO of BT’s Ireland operations. He continues to work with other BT CEOs dividing the world of over 30,000 professionals with expertise in the telecommunications industry. Off these 3,000 ICT experts, Chris overseas about 500 who understand the growing business needs focused either on Ireland or overseas.
