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Matthew Robinson Riley (born February 1974) is a British businessman and the founder and executive chairman of Daisy Group, a UK-based provider of business communications and IT services. [1] [2]
Riley left school at the age of 16 and entered a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) as a trainee fax machine engineer with the Burnley-based office technology company, FH Brown. [2] [3]
Riley later worked as UK sales manager for the German telecommunications company DeTeWe AG, a position he held until 1999. [3] In 1998, he founded Daisy Executive Search & Selection, followed by Coms Care in 1999, where he served as chief executive officer until the company was acquired in 2001. [3]
In 2001, Riley established Daisy Group. [4] [5] The company expanded through a series of acquisitions, listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2009 before returning to private ownership in 2014. [6] [7] In 2018, it was acquired by a consortium led by Toscafund in a deal reportedly valued at £1.6 billion, with Riley resuming his role as chairman. [5] In May 2025, Daisy Group merged with Virgin Media O2. [8] [9]
Outside of Daisy Group, Riley has held non-executive roles, including chairman of the audit and remuneration committees of Time Out Group and non-executive director of Tialis Essential IT PLC. [10] [11] [12] He appeared as a guest interviewer on the BBC Television series, The Apprentice in 2011 and 2012. [13] [14] [15]
Riley has received several UK business awards, including: