Orange ceo brings back room team with him
It’s a given in football that when a new manager is appointed, he brings his “back room” team with him. An assortment of coaches, fixers and physios, these men are usually trusted officers who act as both the manager’s eyes and ears, but also as enforcers, in the club at large.
When England’s Football Association went to Italy to throw sterling at Fabio Capello until he agreed to take the national coache’s job, part of the deal was that Capello brought his own team over with him. Indeed, there were concerns expressed that so Italian was the management team, the local culture would be in danger of fading, or being ignored.
It seems Orange’s Tom Alexander, brought in in October 2007 to replace then-ceo for the UK, Bernard Ghillebaert, has done something similar. The former Virgin Mobile man has brought in three of his own team, as COO, CDO and Chief of Staff and Communications.
Andrew Ralston, a former customer relations director at Virgin Mobile, has been appointed Chief Operations Officer and will chair a newly-formed Operations Board responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.
Gerry McQuade, formerly operations direction at Virgin, has been appointed Chief Development Officer, and will chair another newly-formed Development Board – responsible for ensuring Orange UK has clearly defined, integrated and communicated priorities. Steven Day, Virgin Mobile’s former communications director, has been appointed Chief of Staff & Communications, responsible for communications and culture across all of Orange’s UK operations.
The appointments mean the top four men at Orange are ex-Virgin Mobile, and give Alexander a back room staff all of his own.
Interesting times lie ahead, it seems, for Orange UK.