Charles Dunstone moves to retake control of TalkTalk
Reshuffle follows Dido Harding’s departure after seven years as chief executive
Sir Charles Dunstone has moved to retake control of TalkTalk, in which he owns a 31 per cent stake, after chief executive Dido Harding stood down following seven years in the job.
Sir Charles will revert to his position as executive chairman of the telecoms provider and stand down from the same role at Dixons Carphone, the retailer he founded in 1989 as Carphone Warehouse. TalkTalk was demerged from the group in 2010.
Tristia Harrison, commercial director of TalkTalk and a former marketing director at Carphone Warehouse, has been promoted to chief executive while Charles Bligh is moving to the role of chief operating officer from managing director.
Ms Harrison is a member of the inner circle of ex-Carphone Warehouse executives that have risen alongside Sir Charles. She is also the wife of Andrew Harrison, deputy chief executive of Dixons Carphone and one of Sir Charles’s most trusted lieutenants.
TalkTalk shares were trading 6 per cent higher at 166 pence after the news. They have been under pressure recently, dropping 32 per cent in the past six months and underperforming the wider telecoms sector by 15 per cent.
A poor performance in the third quarter, also published on Wednesday, with revenue growth off almost 5 per cent, was overshadowed by the management changes and a promise to grow in the fourth quarter.
Baroness Harding, a Conservative peer, is to leave TalkTalk in May and said she would focus more on her “activities in public service”.
“After seven extraordinary and fulfilling years, during which we have transformed TalkTalk’s customer experience and laid the foundations for long-term growth, I’ve decided it’s time for me to start handing over the reins at TalkTalk.”
Sir Charles will pass the chairmanship of Dixons Carphone to Ian Livingston, the former BT chief executive, who was named deputy chairman of the retailer in 2015. Lord Livingston, also a Conservative peer, made his name at Dixons where he was appointed finance director aged just 32.
Sir Charles said Dixons Carphone remained “a very important part” of his life.
“It is now three years since we agreed the merger with Dixons and I am delighted with the way both companies have performed since,” he said. “We have built a very strong management team and I have great confidence in their ability, so I know that the company has an exciting future.”
The management shuffle at TalkTalk comes as the industry has become confused over its strategy. It announced in October that it would start to move away from its roots as a budget provider of broadband after its market share receded to 13 per cent from 23 per cent. Yet this week, the company said it would reverse that move and reduce prices.
The company has also struggled to recover from a high-profile cyber attack in October 2015 that affected 156,000 customers, dented the company’s profits and attracted criticism from politicians, regulators and consumer groups.
The telecoms group was later hit by a record £400,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office, which said TalkTalk “should and could have done more to safeguard its customer information”.
Baroness Harding has since insisted that the group had bounced back from the attack, and last June donated her annual £220,000 bonus to charity.