The Lord Carter of Barnes | |
|---|---|
| Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting | |
| In office 10 October 2008 –23 July 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Margaret Hodge |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Follett |
| Downing Street Chief of Staff | |
| Acting 23 January 2008 –10 October 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Tom Scholar |
| Succeeded by | Jeremy Heywood |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 15 October 2008 –28 March 2025 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 February 1964 Falkirk,Scotland,UK |
| Party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen, London Business School |
Stephen Andrew Carter,Baron Carter of Barnes, CBE (born 12 February 1964),is a Scottish businessman and politician. [1] [2] Starting his career as graduate trainee rising to CEO of J Walter Thompson UK &Ireland [3] and COO of NTL UK &Ireland [3] (now Virgin Media), [4] in 2003 Carter became the founding CEO of Ofcom (Office of Communications) in the United Kingdom. [5] He was subsequently the group CEO of Brunswick Group from 2007 [6] until 2008,when he stepped down to join the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, [7] Initially serving in 2008 as Brown's chief of strategy,principal advisor, [1] [8] and the Acting Downing Street Chief of Staff, [8] he was very briefly Minister for Communications,Technology and Broadcasting for 9 months in 2008-9. [9] Between 2010 and 2013 he held various management positions at Alcatel-Lucent, [9] and in 2013 he became the group CEO of Informa, [1] an information and events company. [10]
Born in Falkirk,Scotland on 12 February 1964, [3] Stephen Carter grew up in Edinburgh. [11] His father worked for the logistics company Christian Salvesen,and Carter would often travel to London with his family. [3] He was educated at Currie High School in Edinburgh. [10] [11] In 1982 [10] he began studying law at the University of Aberdeen, [3] [10] serving as student president in 1985 and 1986. He graduated in 1987 [10] with a Bachelor of Laws, [3] [10] then attended Harvard Business School's [3] [11] six-week advanced management program in 1997. [10] In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law (LLD) by his alma mater ,Aberdeen University. [12]
Carter joined the firm J Walter Thompson (JWT) in 1986 [2] as a graduate trainee, [2] [3] specializing in media and technology. [11] In 1994 JWT named him managing director [3] and CEO of J Walter Thompson Company UK &Ireland. [2] [3] He then became JWT's managing director in 1995 and chief executive in 1997. [13]
In 2000 Carter was appointed the chief operating officer and managing director of UK cable TV company NTL UK &Ireland [3] (now Virgin Media). [4] The company was deeply in debt,and Carter helped oversee complete restructuring of the UK &Ireland business. [3] Given debts of £12 billion [14] and market conditions,the company was required to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, [3] with Carter presiding over the bankruptcy proceedings. [14] The company was still in Chapter 11 [15] when he left in 2003. [6] His compensation payoff,rumored to be close to £1.5 million [3] with a £600,000 bonus, [15] met with criticism from shareholders, [3] and in late 2007 the company resolved a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders by paying out $9 million in compensation. [15]
On 1 March 2003 [13] Carter became the founding CEO of Ofcom (Office of Communications), [1] [3] [5] 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. [3] He also led negotiations with BT on matters such as local loop bundling. [16] 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. [7]
He briefly became the group chief executive officer of Brunswick Group LLP on 1 March 2007, [6] in what was a newly created position. [5] [6] He resigned from the role in January 2008 to join the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. At that time,he also stepped down as a commissioner of the UK Commission for Employment &Skills and non-executive director of Royal Mail Holdings and Travis Perkins. [7]
He was acting chief of strategy and principal advisor for Prime Minister Gordon Brown. [1] [2] [7] Serving as Brown's Acting Downing Street Chief of Staff, [8] he was given responsibility for running political strategy,research,communications, [7] and the Policy Unit. [8] Replaced within a year,Carter was subsequently appointed Brown's communications minister in the House of Lords, [9] [17] and in October 2008 [1] he became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for three departments simultaneously: [1] [11] serving as Minister for Communications,Technology and Broadcasting and heading the Department for Business,Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Culture,Media and Sport. [1] Because Carter was not a Member of Parliament having never been elected to public office,it was necessary to appoint him to the House of Lords for the ministerial positions. [18] He was created Baron Carter of Barnes,of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on 15 October 2008, [1] [19] introduced to the House of Lords by Lord Currie and Lord Puttnam. He served in the House of Lords on the front bench in his capacity as Minister. [20]
In June 2009 he was again appointed but almost immediately resigned as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for three departments:the Department for Culture,Media and Sport,the Department for Business,Innovation and Skills,and the Department for Communications,Technology and Broadcasting. [1] As Minister for Communications,Technology &Broadcasting,he commissioned and helped write The Digital Britain Report policy document,which "set out the groundwork for subsequent policies in areas such as superfast broadband," [9] for example the Digital Economy Act 2010. [21] Carter announced on 11 June 2009 that he would be resigning from his ministerial post [22] in July 2009, [1] shortly after the publishing of Digital Britain. [4] [23]
Carter entirely vacated his brief political life,and not voted or spoken in the House of Lords since December 2009. [24] [25] He retired from the Lords on 28 March 2025.
In April 2010 [26] Carter joined the French-American company Alcatel-Lucent,becoming director of marketing,strategy and communications and relocating from London to Paris. [16] 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. [12] Beyond serving as a managing director, [27] 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. [9]
Carter was appointed a director of the board of Informa, [27] an information services group, [10] in 2010. [27] In 2013,the Informa board unanimously voted to appoint him as CEO,succeeding Peter Rigby,in July 2013 [27] - a role he assumed in early 2014. [28] As CEO of the company he maintained the focus on investing in subscriptions,bookings and sponsorship,as well as expanding in international conferences [4] such as the Monaco Yacht Show. [28] Under Carter,in 2016 the company acquired the American events company Penton for £1.2 billion. [4] In January 2018,Informa announced the proposed acquisition of UBM,an events group,for £3.9 billion. [29] 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. [30]
Previously serving on the boards of companies such Travis Perkins,Royal Mail,and 2Wire, [12] he was the chairman of Ashridge Business School [7] from 2008 until 2015. [1] Carter became a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2007, [1] where he is currently a governor, [2] [7] and he has been a director at Informa since 2010. [27] As of 2010 he was a vice president of UNICEF, [12] and that year UNICEF UK granted him an honorary fellowship,with Carter becoming a trustee. After becoming a director at United Utilities Group in 2014,he became chairman of the company's corporate responsibility committee in 2016. In 2017 he was named a director for the Department for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). [1]
Carter and his wife,Anna,have two children together. His personal interests include running,Chelsea F.C.,and the arts. [2] [11]
