Matthew Robinson Riley (born February 1974) is a British businessman and the founder and executive chairman of Daisy Group, a UK-based provider of business communications and IT services.

Early life

Riley left school at the age of 16 and entered a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) as a trainee

fax machine Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...

engineer with the

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

-based office technology company, FH Brown.

Career

Riley later worked as UK sales manager for the German telecommunications company DeTeWe AG, a position he held until 1999. In 1998, he founded Daisy Executive Search & Selection, followed by Coms Care in 1999, where he served as chief executive officer until the company was acquired in 2001. In 2001, Riley established Daisy Group. The company expanded through a series of acquisitions, listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2009 before returning to private ownership in 2014. In 2018, it was acquired by a consortium led by Toscafund in a deal reportedly valued at £1.6 billion, with Riley resuming his role as chairman. In May 2025, Daisy Group merged with

Virgin Media O2 VMED O2 UK Limited, trading as Virgin Media O2, is a British mass media and telecommunications company based in Reading, England. The company was formed in June 2021 as a 50–50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica through ...

. Outside of Daisy Group, Riley has held non-executive roles, including chairman of the audit and remuneration committees of

Time Out Group Time Out Group is a British media and hospitality company. Its digital and physical presence comprises websites, mobile editions, social media, live events and markets. Time Out covers events, entertainment and culture in cities around the worl ...

and non-executive director of Tialis Essential IT PLC. He appeared as a guest interviewer on the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

series, The Apprentice in 2011 and 2012.

Recognition

Riley has received several UK business awards, including: * Young Entrepreneur of the Year,

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(2007) * Dealmaker of the Year, City Awards (2010) * Outstanding Achievement Award, ICT Forum (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Matthew Living people British technology company founders 20th-century English businesspeople 21st-century English businesspeople English company founders