Big shot of the week
IAN LIVINGSTON, 52 CHAIRMAN, DIXONS CARPHONE
YOU don’t get too many Conservative supporters hailing from the East End of Glasgow. Even fewer who have taken up ermine to serve in a Conservative-led government.
When Ian Livingston, Lord Livingston of Parkhead if you please, was plucked from the top job at BT by David Cameron to serve as Trade Minister during the shaky days of the coalition, fans of his beloved Celtic FC weren’t happy.
A filthy Tory on the board of Celtic? Gosh they were cross. When he voted in favour of reducing tax credits, a petition was launched to have him removed.
The Hoops faithful finally got their wish this week. Livingston, 52, has stepped down from the club after ten years, though not due to any political affiliations.
He wants to concentrate on his new position as chairman of Dixons Carphone, a role which teams him with another member of Cameron’s circle, Seb James.
With a CV that reads like a headhunter’s fantasy novel, his Lordship is by definition a City grandee, albeit one devoid of all pomp and splendour.
Forthright types would say he’s not overly burdened with charisma. Polite and quietly spoken, he trained as an accountant and it’s fair to say he looks like one.
LIVINGSTON’Snot a club man, nor an oily Mayfair restaurant schmoozer. He prefers to collect his own sandwich for lunch and attends evening functions only grudgingly. His ideal down-time is relaxing at home in Hertfordshire with his two grown-up children and wife Debbie, whom he met aged just 19 while studying economics at Manchester University.
Wee Ian appeared to be destined for great things from a young age. Born the youngest of four children to a GP father, as a teenager he won a Royal Bank of Scotland fantasy-share investment competition after turning £10,000 into £30,000 in just ten months.
Dedication and hard work were in the DNA. His great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe who came over to Scotland in the nineteenth century. The first generation were seamstresses and the next owned a clothing factory.
His father had wanted young Livingston to follow him into medicine, but he opted to join accountants Arthur Andersen, before rising rapidly up the management levels at Bank of America and private equity firm 3i.
His big break came in 1991 when he joined Dixons in its corporate development department. It wasn’t long before the company’s stately chairman Lord (Stanley) Kalms recognised Livingston’s potential. After 18 months, Livingston was appointed the youngest FTSE 100 finance director at 32. The creep!
His time at Dixons was produc- tive, helping to create PC World and Freeserve.
Once the broadband service provider was sold, he was headhunted by BT to be finance director in 2002 before taking up the chief executive’s post in 2008.
Under his leadership, BT was regarded as an important coalition ally, helping to meet Government plans to replace antiquated copper telephone lines with fibreoptic cables and ensuring more rural homes got internet access.
HISdecision to pack it all in, in favour of public service in 2011, was admirable. The move over to the House of Lords meant a substantial wage drop – he was earning £8.5m a year – though a £9m goodbye from the company will have cushioned the blow.
Colleagues were surprised when he wasn’t reappointed to the cabinet after the 2015 election. The trade job is a demanding role, requiring endless globetrotting, but he gave no indication he planned to leave politics.
But if the Government did turn its back on him, the City didn’t. The chairmanship of hedge fund giant Man Group followed, which he plans to continue doing along with his Carphone job.
Despite this week’s departure, he’s looking forward to returning to Celtic Park for as many games as possible. He prefers the hustle and bustle of the terraces to the reserve of the directors’ box.
As a hot youth, Livingston used to brave the ground’s notorious ‘Jungle’, the area of the north stand reserved for the club’s hardcore support. How many then would have guessed that modest young scamp would rise to the very top of the tree?