| Intro | British marketer |
| Is | Marketer |
| From | United Kingdom |
| Type | Business |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 1 January 1967 |
| Age: | 53 years |
Gavin Echlin Patterson (born 6 September 1967) is a British marketer who was appointed chief executive of BT Group plc in September 2013. Before joining BT, he worked for Telewest and Procter & Gamble. He is the president of the Advertising Association.
Childhood, education and personal life
He was born in Altrincham in 1967 and attended schools in Warrington and Yeovil. He graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering. His wife, Karen, is a fashion designer who worked for Donna Karan. The couple have four children and now live in Surrey.
Career
He was European head of marketing at Procter & Gamble for their Pantene line of hair products. In 2000, he joined the cable company Telewest, managing their television services. In 2004, he moved to BT to be the managing director of their consumer division. He launched BT Vision which provided on-demand TV and subsequently was responsible for their broadband offerings such as the optical fibre service, BT Infinity. At BT, his management style was a mix of relaxed, stylish marketing with aggressive cost-cutting. He was known for his flamboyant appearance of romantic black hair and open shirt collars. The previous chief executive, Ian Livingston, said of him, “…one button undone was fine, two was a bit racy, and three was Gavin.” This marketing-executive style was novel and successful in the conservative corporate culture of BT and, as a high-flyer, he joined the board of BT in 2008.
BT
He was appointed chief executive of the BT Group in 2013 to replace Ian Livingston who was ennobled to join the government as Baron Livingston of Parkhead and Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
In August 2013, he was ranked as number 26 in The Guardian’s Media 100 2013 – a listing of “the most powerful people in television, radio, newspapers, magazines, digital media, media business, advertising, marketing and PR”; it was his first appearance in this list. In December 2013, Computer Weekly ranked him as number 8 in its UKtech50 for 2013 — “the most influential people in UK IT”.
He was BT’s representative on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s Climate Change Board, 2008-[2013], and joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s Executive Committee effective 1 January 2015, after the company joined WBCSD in April 2014.
Other interests
He is a fellow of the Marketing Society and a member of the exclusive Thirty Club for advertising professionals. He was appointed President of the Advertising Association in 2011. He is also a non-executive director of British Airways, a trustee of the British Museum and is on the board of Cambridge Judge Business School.
He has supported Liverpool football club since his early years in nearby Warrington.