Monday profile: Ian Livingston, chief executive, BT

HE RANKS Cool Hand Luke among his all-time favourite films, but British Telecom boss Ian Livingston is among those least likely to encounter a failure of communication.

The chief executive of the UK's largest broadband provider rarely shouts, and claims that raising his voice isn't essential when making a salient point. He has described himself as a "very straightforward" communicator, and is generally regarded as a confident and enthusiastic public speaker.

So, though BT executives will have some penetrating questions to answer when they reveal the company's third-quarter results on Thursday, expect a typically steady performance from Livingston. His pace of speech may quicken from time to time, highlighting his Glaswegian accent, but he should prove adept at fielding even the trickiest of enquiries.

Many of these will undoubtedly relate to BT's struggling global services division, which fell into disrepute in 2008 when it was revealed to be running at a huge loss. Investors and analysts will take an even keener interest in the unit, which provides IT and telecommunications services to large firms such as PepsiCo, Fiat and the UK's National Health Service, following the surprise news last month that long-serving BT executive Hanif Lalani would be stepping down as head of the problematic unit.

Lalani, a 26-year veteran at BT, was drafted in on an emergency basis 15 months earlier to lead restructuring within the division, which was forced to write down the value of its contracts by 340m in early 2009. It then reported a full-year loss of 2.1bn on sales of 8.8bn, including a financial review charge of 1.6bn and restructuring costs of 280m.

Lalani, who was respected in the City for the strides made in starting the global services recovery, was replaced by US-born EDS executive Jeff Kelly. Though Kelly is regarded as an able replacement, some analysts have questioned whether Lalani's departure came too soon in the turnaround process.

"They have lost a good man," one analyst was quoted as saying at the time.

Livingston, who admitted that Lalani had taken over global services at a "difficult time", will likely be probed as to whether Kelly's appointment signals a return to what some analysts regard as a flawed strategy aimed at turning the unit into a global competitor capable of taking on the likes of IBM or HP. Such ambitions were championed by Livingston's predecessor, Ben Verwaayen, though Livingston has also in the past referred to the division as a genuine "world-leader".

As a high-flyer with an impressive track record of achievements, Livingston was regarded as the white-hot favourite to take over when Verwaayen announced his impending departure. It seemed a natural progression for Livingston, despite his relative youth at just 43 years of age.

Though his parents would have liked him to follow his father's career path into medicine, the young Livingston showed an early flair for the world of business. While still a student at Kelvinside Academy, he won a Scotland-wide fantasy share investment tournament sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland, turning 10,000 into 30,000 in a span of just six months.

After leaving the academy at the age of 16 with eight O levels and five Highers, Livingston went on to the University of Manchester, where he earned a BA in economics by the age of 19. He trained as an accountant at the bygone Arthur Andersen, where on assignment he became the first chief accountant of The Independent newspaper.

He went on to join Bank of America and later 3i, the private equity group, where he steadily worked his way up the management ranks. However, his big break came in 1991, when he was tapped up by Sir Stanley (now Lord) Kalms to join Dixons Group in its corporate development department.

Livingston was named finance director at Dixons in 1997, making him the youngest-ever FTSE 100 FD. He was 32 years old at the time.

He then became a founding director of Dixons' Freeserve, the broadband service established in 1998 and catapulted into popularity by offering internet access without a monthly subscription. The company floated on the stock market in 1999 and was for a time a member of the FTSE 100, but was purchased a year later by France Telecom's Wanadoo for 1.65bn.

Livingston joined BT as finance director in 2002, then became the group's retail director in 2005. He replaced Dutchman Verwaayen as group CEO on 1 June 2008.

Known as an early riser who shuns lunch meetings, Livingston would rather pop out from his office and collect his own midday meal from the nearby shops. He claims to grudgingly attend only the most important of evening events, preferring instead to return home and spend a bit of time with his family at Elstree in Hertfordshire.

The only other place he would rather be, he says, is watching his beloved Celtic playing on their home turf in Glasgow's east end. Livingston, a non-executive director at Parkhead, is a life-long Celtic supporter, and flies north as often as possible to catch the home matches.

Those opportunities are presumably hard to come by, as Livingston is rumoured to work as much as 80 to 90 hours every week. With BT's future tied in no small part to the pending recovery in global services, there seems little chance of a reprieve in the near future for the man charged with delivering the BT message.

BACKGROUND

BORN 28 July, 1964, Ian Paul Livingston is the youngest of four children of Jewish immigrant ancestry raised in the Kelvinside area of Glasgow. His father worked for 40 years as a GP in the city's east end, while the younger Livingstons attended the independent Kelvinside Academy.

After leaving the academy at 16, Livingston went to the University of Manchester, where he graduated at 19 with a degree in economics. It was there he met his wife, Debbie, who he married in 1989. They have a son and a daughter.

Livingston qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987. He went on to work with Bank of America and private equity group 3i before joining Dixons in 1991, where he became the youngest-ever FTSE 100 finance director at 32.

While at Dixons, he played a key role in the creation of Freeserve. After the broadband service provider was sold, Livingston joined BT as finance director in 2002. He later served as retail director before taking up the chief executive's post in 2008.

A lifelong Celtic supporter, Livingston was appointed a non-executive director at the Parkhead club on 1 October 2007. He continues in that post, where he chairs the club's audit committee.