Carter joined the firm J Walter Thompson (JWT) in 1986[3] as a graduate trainee,[3][4] specializing in media and technology.[12] In 1994 JWT named him managing director[4] and CEO of J Walter Thompson Company UK &Ireland.[3][4] He then became JWT's managing director in 1995 and chief executive in 1997.[14]
In 2000 Carter was appointed the chief operating officer and managing director of UK cable TV company NTL UK &Ireland[4] (now Virgin Media).[5] The company was deeply in debt,and Carter helped oversee complete restructuring of the UK &Ireland business.[4] Given debts of £12 billion[15] and market conditions,the company was required to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,[4] with Carter presiding over the bankruptcy proceedings.[15] The company was still in Chapter 11[16] when he left in 2003.[7] His compensation payoff,rumored to be close to £1.5 million[4] with a £600,000 bonus,[16] met with criticism from shareholders,[4] and in late 2007 the company resolved a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders by paying out $9 million in compensation.[16]
Ofcom and Brunswick
On 1 March 2003[14] Carter became the founding CEO of Ofcom (Office of Communications),[2][4][6] the British government's new media regulator. Among other issues,Carter focused on regulating broadband prices and coordinating regulation of switching from analog to digital television broadcasting.[4] He also led negotiations with BT on matters such as local loop bundling.[17] Stepping down from Ofcom in the summer of 2006,he was a part of the capability review team in 2006 and 2007 that reviewed the Department for International Development.[8]
Carter entirely vacated his brief political life,and not voted or spoken in the House of Lords since December 2009.[25][26] He retired from the Lords on 28 March 2025.
Alcatel
In April 2010[27] Carter joined the French-American company Alcatel-Lucent,becoming director of marketing,strategy and communications and relocating from London to Paris.[17] This was a private profit role that benefitted from his previous regulatory and ministerial roles. His official titles as of 2010 were executive vice president and chief strategy &marketing officer.[13] Beyond serving as a managing director,[28] he became the company's president of operations in Europe,the Middle East and Africa. He returned to London and officially retired from Alcatel-Lucent in April 2013,although he continued to work on special projects for the company through that summer.[10]
Informa
Carter was appointed a director of the board of Informa,[28] an information services group,[11] in 2010.[28] In 2013,the Informa board unanimously voted to appoint him as CEO,succeeding Peter Rigby,in July 2013[28] - a role he assumed in early 2014.[29] As CEO of the company he maintained the focus on investing in subscriptions,bookings and sponsorship,as well as expanding in international conferences[5] such as the Monaco Yacht Show.[29] Under Carter,in 2016 the company acquired the American events company Penton for £1.2 billion.[5] In January 2018,Informa announced the proposed acquisition of UBM,an events group,for £3.9 billion.[30] Carter,who became chief executive of the combined group,said at that point that he would retain the other parts of Informa,including business intelligence and its academic publishing business Taylor &Francis.[31]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
