Gavin Patterson (born 6 September 1967) is a

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...

who was President & Chief Revenue Officer of

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...

and Chief Executive of BT Group from 2013–19.

Early life

He was born in

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, on 6 September 1967, and attended schools in

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

and

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

. He graduated from

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

with a bachelor's degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

Career

Early career

He was European head of marketing at

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

for their

Pantene Pantene () is an American brand of hair care products now owned by Procter & Gamble. The product line originated in Europe in 1945 by Hoffmann-La Roche of Switzerland, which based the name on panthenol. It started to be introduced in the United ...

line of hair products. In 2000, he joined the cable company

Telewest Telewest (previously Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications) was a cable internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also ...

, managing their television services. In 2004, he moved to BT to be the managing director of their consumer division. He launched

BT Vision EE TV (formerly BT Vision and then BT TV until 2023) is a subscription IPTV service offered by EE; a brand of British telecommunications company BT Group. It requires the signing up to and use of the EE Broadband internet and phone service, w ...

which provided on-demand TV and subsequently was responsible for their broadband offerings such as the optical fibre service, BT Infinity. At BT, his management style was a mix of relaxed, stylish marketing with aggressive cost-cutting. He was known for his flamboyant appearance of romantic black hair and open shirt collars. The previous chief executive, Ian Livingston, said of him, "...one button undone was fine, two was a bit racy, and three was Gavin." This marketing-executive style was novel and successful in the conservative corporate culture of BT and, as a high-flyer, he joined the board of BT in 2008.

BT

He was appointed chief executive of the

BT Group BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

in 2013 to replace Ian Livingston who was ennobled to join the government as Baron Livingston of Parkhead and

Minister of State for Trade and Investment The Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security, formerly Minister of State for Trade Policy and Minister of State for Trade, is a mid-level role at the Department for Business and Trade in the Government of the United Kingdom. It ...

. In August 2013, he was ranked as number 26 in the 2013 ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

s Media 100 , his first appearance in the list. In December 2013, ''

Computer Weekly ''Computer Weekly'' is a digital magazine and website for IT professionals in the United Kingdom owned by Informa TechTarget. It was formerly published as a weekly print magazine by Reed Business Information for over 50 years. Topics covered wit ...

'' ranked him as number 8 in its UKtech50 for 2013 . He was BT's representative on the

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a British business interest group, which says it represents 190,000 businesses. The CBI has been described by the ''Financial Times'' as "Britain's biggest business lobby group". Incorporated by roy ...

(CBI)'s Climate Change Board, 2008-

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

and joined the

World Business Council for Sustainable Development The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led organization of over 225 international companies. The council is also connected to 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations. Its origins da ...

(WBCSD)'s Executive Committee effective 1 January 2015, after the company joined in April 2014. On 25 October 2018, it was announced that Philip Jansen, the outgoing CEO of Worldpay, would succeed him as CEO of BT, with effect from 1 February 2019, as "a change of leadership was needed".

Fractal Analytics

In November 2019, it was announced that Patterson had joined the board of directors for the artificial intelligence company Fractal Analytics.

Elixirr

In November 2019, Patterson had joined the board of directors for the Challenger Consultancy Elixirr as non-Executive Chairman. Together with Founder and CEO, Stephen Newton, Patterson then led Elixirr to one of the most successful IPO's during the Covid 19 lockdown.

Other interests

He is a fellow of the Marketing Society and a member of the Thirty Club for advertising professionals. He was appointed president of the

Advertising Association The Advertising Association (AA) is a trade association representing advertisers, agencies, media and research services in the UK advertising industry. Its stated aim is to promote the “…role, rights and responsibilities of advertising and it ...

in 2011. He is a non-executive director of

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

, a trustee of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, and is on the board of Cambridge Judge Business School. He is a Non-Executive Director at British Airways, the APAX-backed AI business Fractal, and a Trustee of the British Museum.

Personal life

His wife, Karen, is a fashion marketer who worked for

Donna Karan Donna Karan ( ; born Donna Ivy Faske), also known as DK, is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels. Early life and education Karan was born to mother Helen "Queenie" Faske (née Rabinow ...

. They have four children. He has supported

Liverpool Football Club Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

since his early years in nearby Warrington.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Gavin Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge British technology chief executives BT Group people Living people 1967 births People from Warrington People from Surrey British Airways people Trustees of the British Museum British advertising executives