Ian Livingston (born July 28, 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland),[1] is the Chief Executive Officer of BT Group (commonly known as British Telecom).
The fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago, the family eventually owned a factory that made flying jackets and police uniforms.[1] Brought up in Kelvinside, his parents were both Doctors and Livingston is the youngest of four children to the couple who wanted him to become a doctor. His father is a retired General Practitioner who practised in Parkhead, while his brother is a Sheriff in Glasgow, the other a partner in an accountancy firm and his sister a professor of psychiatry in London. The boys were educated at the independent Kelvinside Academy, where Ian won a royal Bank of Scotland fantasy share-investment competition, turning £10,000 into £30,000 in just 10 months.[2]
After graduating with a degree in economics from University of Manchester at the age of 19, he trained as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, where on assignment he became the first chief accountant of The Independent newspaper.[1] Livingston then moved to Bank of America, and then private-equity firm 3i. After being spotted by Sir Stanley Kalms, he moved to the corporate development department of Dixons Group in 1991, before becoming the youngest FTSE 100 finance director at the age of 32. Under then CEO John Pluthero, Livingston became key in creating PC World and the broadband provider Freeserve.[2]
After the sale of Freeserve, and turning down an approach to become CEO of Marks and Spencer before the post went to Sir Stuart Rose,[3][2][1] Livingston joined BT Group as Finance Director, before he took up the post of CEO Retail. He replaced Ben Verwaayen as Group CEO on June 1, 2008.[4]
Livingston is also a non-executive director of Celtic F.C., where he was appointed to the board on October 1, 2007.[5] Married in 1989, Livingston and his wife met at University. The couple and their two children (one son, one daughter), live in Elstree.[2]
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