Wilton & Bain Recruits CCO and CTO for Community Fibre
January 23, 2020 – London-based executive search firm Wilton & Bain has recruited Peter Rampling as chief commercial officer and Dale Kirkwood as chief technology officer of Community Fibre, a gigabit broadband U.K. internet service provider with a vision to deliver full fiber coverage to 500,000 homes in London. Jay Siddiki and Daniel Harrison, both principals within the global telecoms, media and technology functions at Wilton & Bain, led the search.
“Community Fibre required commercially astute executives who could drive the major scale-up of the business but, more so, it required people leaders who could bridge the gap between shareholders-board-staff,” said Mr. Siddiki. “Such a need was very complementary to both Peter and Dale’s extensive experience where they have worked with extremely complex international businesses over the years.”
“We are very pleased to welcome Peter and Dale to Community Fibre,” said Graeme Oxby, CEO of Community Fibre. “Their diverse and global experience in the IT and telecoms market will no doubt prove invaluable to the business, especially as we look to expand our full-fiber network in London and accelerate company growth. From securing wayleaves to delivering an excellent customer experience this dynamic new leadership team will prove fundamental in taking the business to the next stage of growth.”
At Community Fibre, Mr. Rampling will be driving further customer growth and leading sales, marketing and customer service for the residential business. He has extensive commercial and leadership experience having previously been CCO for Digicel in the Caribbean Region, CCO for Telefonica O2’s consumer business in Germany and as the chief marketing officer of O2 UK.
Mr. Kirkwood will lead the growth of Community Fibre’s IT and information solutions. He has a strong background in sales and field staff environments having worked as global director of IT for the sustainability consultancy ERM Group. He also has experience delivering time-critical IT solutions following his tenure as regional technology director for Flight Centre Travel Group, supporting sales and service staff, and leading the worldwide delivery of trackside IT for McClaren Racing.
Community Fibre said it is on a mission to bring world-class internet services to Londoners. While a large proportion of the city has some of the poorest and slowest broadband services in Europe, the company said it is working to make London a Gigafast city. Headquartered in London, Community Fibre has raised £90 million in investments over the last three years and is on track to pass 500,000 homes.
Last August, Wilton & Bain placed Mr. Oxby as the CEO of Community Fibre. “Community Fibre required a commercially astute executive who could drive the major scale-up of the business but, more so, it required a people leader who could bridge the gap between shareholders-board-staff,” said Mr. Siddiki. “Such a need was very complementary to Graeme’s extensive experience within the mobile communications industry where he has worked with extremely complex international businesses over the years.” Mr. Oxby’s previous experience includes serving as CEO of Lebara Group during which time he modernized and restructured the business.
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Founded in 2001, Wilton & Bain provides executive search, interim management/consulting and technology resourcing services to the technology, professional services and converging digital markets. With offices in London, San Francisco, New York and Frankfurt, the firm has an expertise in technology to focus on digital transformation for clients across TMT, retail, consumer, financial services, insurance and utilities.
Finding Transformative Leaders Fueling Growth & Innovation at Wilton & Bain
In the early years after its founding in 2001, London-based Wilton & Bain was content to be a respected, tightly focused professional services executive search firm. With technology as its niche, it was a good business, everyone agreed, and profitable. Yet it was relatively small and geographically limited.
Fast forward 18 years and behold a new picture: Wilton & Bain is making big gains in London and even more in the U.S., where it is in full growth and expansion mode. The firm has already planted its flag in New York (the new office opened last summer) and San Francisco (where it has had a presence since 2014). In October, Wilton & Bain will launch a three-person office in Boston, with more big plans on the horizon.
Mr. Siddiki joined the interim management transformation and change practice at Wilton & Bain in 2018, specializing in supporting clients within the TMT sector to hire interim executives, program leaders and seasoned SMEs in business and technology led change initiatives. He typically supports his clients to embed business change through technology led programs, M&A activities and strategy led change, utilizing his mature global network of seasoned change professionals. Mr. Siddiki has focused his career on collaborating with most major Tier 1 mobile operator groups, consultancies, vendors and integrators.
Through his experience, he has advised various CxOs on business strategies and transformational approaches on some of the industry’s largest and most critical change programs. He specializes in supporting change
initiatives within CTO, CHRO, COO and CIO functions.
Mr. Harrison joined Wilton & Bain in 2017 as a principal within its technology practice. He now has 13 years’ experience within the technology and business intelligence market and has become trusted by many CTOs to safely and swiftly build their direct team.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
