Gavin Patterson


Gavin Echlin Patterson is a British marketer who is the UK chief executive of Salesforce. He was chief executive of BT Group plc from September 2013 to January 2019. Before joining BT, he worked for Telewest and Procter & Gamble. He is the president of the Advertising Association.

Early life

He was born in Altrincham in 1967, and attended schools in Warrington and Yeovil. He graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.

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 's Climate Change Board, 2008-, and joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development 's Executive Committee effective 1 January 2015, after the company joined WBCSD in April 2014.
On 25 October 2018, it was announced that Philip Jansen, the outgoing CEO of Worldpay, would succeed him as CEO of BT, with effect from 1 February 2019, as "a change of leadership was needed".

Fractal Analytics

In November 2019, it was announced that Patterson had joined the board of directors for the artificial intelligence company, Fractal Analytics.

Other interests

He is a fellow of the Marketing Society and a member of the Thirty Club for advertising professionals. He was appointed president of the Advertising Association in 2011. He is a non-executive director of British Airways, a trustee of the British Museum, and is on the board of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Personal life

His wife, Karen, is a fashion marketer who worked for Donna Karan. The couple have four children and now live in Surrey.
He has supported Liverpool Football Club since his early years in nearby Warrington.