Our Leaders in Business Telecommunications
Peter Dubens - Executive Chairman
Peter Dubens is the founder of a privately owned asset management and advisory group comprising private equity, fund of funds, corporate finance, capital introduction and venture capital operations.
Peter is the Managing Director of Oakley Capital Limited, the investment adviser to Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P., a European middle-market private equity fund specialising in turnarounds, restructurings and consolidation opportunities. During the last 20 years Peter has acquired, restructured and consolidated public and private companies. Most recently as executive chairman, he led the formation of two public companies, being 365 Media Group plc and Pipex Communications plc (now Daisy Group plc). The 365 Media platform consolidated 12 businesses within the online sports information and gambling industry and the Pipex platform consolidated 14 businesses within the telecoms and internet industries. 365 Media was sold for over £102 million to BSkyB and the main operating divisions of Pipex were sold for approximately £330 million, on a cash and debt free basis, before adjustments.
Matthew Riley - CEO
Matthew Riley established Daisy in 2001 and has led the company through rapid growth to become one of the UK’s leading business communication providers to the SME and mid market. Daisy is regularly recognised for outstanding growth in independent surveys and awards programmes.
Prior to establishing Daisy, Matthew began his career as a sales executive at FH Brown, achieving rapid promotion to Regional Area Sales Manager and subsequently Regional Manager in 1997. He then joined German telecoms company DeTeWe AG, progressing to UK Sales Manager in 1999.
Matthew subsequently established and sold three start-up companies before founding Daisy. Matthew’s achievements with Daisy have been independently recognised through the award of Ernst & Young’s UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007. In the same year he was also the inaugural winner of the Bank of Scotland Entrepreneur Challenge, securing a £5 million interest free loan from Bank of Scotland and mentoring from Sir Philip Green.
Anthony Riley - CFO
Anthony is a chartered accountant and joined the board from Daisy Communications Limited, where he was appointed Chief Financial Officer in August 2008.
Anthony studied at the University of Sheffield, gaining a first class honours degree in Economics. Following graduation he joined Deloitte in the audit and assurance department, where he spent three years undertaking his Association of Chartered Accountants qualification and a further two years in supervisory and management roles.
Anthony has over 13 years' experience of senior financial roles. Prior to joining Daisy Communications Limited, Anthony was Finance Director of Homeserve Claims Management Limited between 2002 and 2008, where he helped guide the company through a period of significant continued growth.
Mike Read - CEO - Freedom4 Wireless Broadband
Mike Read has over 30 years experience in the communications and internet industry. He started his career in British Telecom where he focused mainly on international activities. This culminated in him playing a key role in Concert, the US-based joint venture between British Telecom and MCI, and later leading all of British Telecom’s global engineering and operational activities.
In the mid 1990s, Mike joined ANS (an AOL company) to lead sales, marketing and product management in the rapidly expanding internet market, in advance of its eventual sale to Worldcom. In 1999 he became President of OneMain.com, a US NASDAQ-listed ISP roll-up, building the company to approximately 900,000 customers through organic growth and the purchase of 30 companies. OneMain was sold to Earthlink in September 2000. Mike returned to the UK to lead XO Europe as CEO. After a strategic review in October 2002, the business was sold and became a cornerstone of Freedom4; Mike became CEO of the larger AIM-listed company which was later renamed Pipex Communications plc.
Laurence Blackall - Non-Executive Director
Laurence Blackall has had a 30 year career in the information, media and communication industries. After an early career that included Virgin and the SEMA Group, Laurence was appointed a director of Frost & Sullivan and a vice-president of McGraw Hill. Laurence was also CEO of AIM listed Internet Technology Group, which he founded in 1995, and Chairman of Boat International Publications. Laurence was also instrumental in the creation of Pipex Communications plc (now Daisy Group plc). He is also a director of OCIL.
Laurence has an MA in marketing and currently holds a number of directorships in public and private UK companies.
Laurence is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.
Christina Kennedy - Independent Non Executive Director
Christina Kennedy has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries. Until a few years ago she worked on a consultancy basis at board level acting as Company Secretary in a variety of listed companies, including AIM, FTSE 250 and overseas companies with a secondary listing. She has more recently held roles as a non executive director.
Christina’s industry experience is wide ranging and includes manufacturing, leisure and service companies. She has worked in a consultancy capacity as corporate governance Adviser for a major UK pension fund and therefore has a good understanding of investors’ governance requirements. Christina’s experience has involved her working with boards on acquisitions; restructuring; board compositions and appointments; directors’ service contracts and remuneration issues; long term incentive schemes; share options and risk management issues related to internal control requirements.
Christina is Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees, a member of the Audit Committee and is the senior independent director.
Ian McKenzie - Non Executive Director
Ian McKenzie has spent more than 40 years in the telecommunication and broadcast industry working in various international markets. He initially worked with British Telecom in a number of senior positions, leading divisions to successfully target business and consumer markets with voice, data, broadband and complex solution services, both in the UK and Europe. His final position was as chief operating officer in the Asia Pacific Region. He then joined Kingston Communications as chief operating officer, which he left in 2002.
Ian then worked as an advisor and consultant for various private equity investors and took non executive chairman roles with a number of businesses, including Karneval Media and executive chairman of Invitel in Hungary both of which have been sold. He is currently non executive chairman of Daisy Communications Ltd, Ceské Radiokomunikace in the Czech Republic and Multicom Security AB in Sweden. He also works as a Senior Telecommunications Advisor to GMT Communications Partners LLP.
Ian brings with him a wealth of experience from telecommunications, media and broadcast sectors targeting business, small-medium enterprises and consumer markets. Ian is a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees.
Ian Butcher - Independent Non Executive Director
Ian Butcher was Group Finance Director of The Go-Ahead Group plc, one of the UK's leading providers of passenger transport services operating in the bus, rail and aviation services sectors, between 1996 and 2007, taking a lead role in transforming it into a well-respected FTSE 250 company. His work there led to Ian being voted FTSE 250 and Overall UK FD of the Year in the CBI FD Excellence Awards in 2006.
Prior to Go-Ahead, Ian was Group Finance Director for Casket plc, the consumer products group, between 1990 and 1995, overseeing its rationalisation, successful turn-around and subsequent growth through acquisition. Previous experience includes a Finance Director role at Anglia Oils Limited. Ian qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG where he stayed for 12 years and during which time he worked extensively in the corporate finance and restructuring fields. Currently, Ian is Non-executive Director and Audit Committee Chairman of Redhall Group plc, the engineering services business.
Ian is a member of the Audit Committee.
David McGlennon – General Counsel and Company Secretary
David is a qualified solicitor and joined Daisy as General Counsel and Company Secretary in October 2009.
Prior to joining Daisy David was a senior associate at Eversheds LLP in the firm’s corporate group. During his time at Eversheds, David, who has extensive experience in advising public and private companies in relation to mergers, acquisitions and general corporate matters, advised Daisy Communications Limited on its reverse takeover of Freedom4 Group plc and Daisy’s subsequent acquisition of the telecoms division of Redstone plc. Prior to joining Eversheds in 2006, David spent seven years working at the London headquarters of Clifford Chance LLP, where he was a solicitor in the firm’s corporate finance group.
David has a Master of Arts degree in law from Cambridge University.
