BT’s Mike Rake in talks over tech firm role

CITY grandee Mike Rake is in line for the chairman’s role at London-based tech company Pushfor ahead of a possible float.

Rake, due to step down as chairman of telecoms giant BT in November, has held talks over joining the board at the secure messaging and content-sharing business.

Gaining his services would be a coup for Pushfor as Rake is one of the most respected directors in the FTSE 100 and is a former president of the CBI.

Rake was also chairman of payments processing firm Worldpay which earlier this month was bought by rival Vantiv in a £9.3billion deal and he remains a senior director of the combined firm.

He stressed that no role had yet been agreed with Pushfor. Rake said: ‘We met and I thought their company was very interesting and we agreed to catch up again in the autumn to see if there is any mutual interest in me joining the board.’

Sources suggest that a place on the board for Rake might be a precursor to Pushfor floating on the stock exchange.

Founded by tech entrepreneur John Safa, Pushfor uses patented technology to ‘push’ information to users, allowing them to view the content without physically sending it to them. The sender can remove content at any time if, for example, an unauthorised user attempts to download or screenshot it.

Safa has raised £55million for funding in the past 18 years.