CEO Today United Kingdom Awards

IT SERVICES 75 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2019 RUSSELL HORTON CEO of FluidOne ABOUT RUSSELL HORTON Russell joined FluidOne as CEO in April 2018 to lead the next stage in the company’s growth and to provide an exit for the shareholders, the Rigby Group plc. With over 25 years’ experience in telecoms and IT, Russell has led award-winning businesses with strong customer service, market-leading systems and platforms; growing them organically and through acquisitions, expanding their capabilities and offering a wider range of services and expertise to customers. This includes 15 acquisitions and five successful exits. Livingbridge Investment FluidOne operates in a fast-growth marketplace, driven by digital transformation, supplier fragmentation and convergence of IT and Telephony, where quality and choice of connectivity services are becoming more and more essential. Reviewing the business and the market, Russell set the vision for FluidOne to be the best quality data connectivity provider to UK business and his five-year strategy, to grow organically and through acquisition to treble in revenue, bringing complementary products and services to customers, whilst delivering market-leading service levels. On joining the business, Russell assembled a management team capable of delivering the strategy by blending a mix of the existing management and external hires to give a strong balance of heritage, organic growth and acquisition experience. The management team then created the detailed business plans to support delivering the strategy and began implementing the first year of improvements. An early key change was to introduce Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) and use this for detailed customer feedback to drive a program of improvements, which since its implementation has seen a step change from an industry average of 35 in July 2018 to a market-leading 66 in August 2019. With the management team in place and improvements in progress, Russell worked with the Rigby Group on going to market, a large number of private equity firms were interested in the opportunity and the quality of FluidOne. Livingbridge stood out early on, they are market leading with great experience in the sector, and their open, commercial and frank approach soon established and built the foundation for trust, seeking a deal that would be a win-win. Livingbridge recognised Platform One, FluidOne’s software-defined network, as a key differentiator in the market and one of the main reasons to invest. FluidOne were able to complete the investment and provide the exit for Rigby Group within 11 months of Russell joining the business, with 8 of the management team investing alongside Russell and Livingbridge. FIRM PROFILE Founded in 2006, FluidOne is a market-leading network aggregator, with 700 direct business customers and 200 reseller partners. They are over £29 million in revenue to March 2019 and approximately 100 staff. Platform One, FluidOne’s national fibre network, was a winner of the Queens Award for Innovation:Enterprise. From its 19 anchor datacentre PoPs around the UK, Platform One blends the services of 30 different asset owning communications providers, including IoT, Ethernet, Broadband, Mobile, Internet, WiFi, Cloud and hosting services into one ready to compare, ready to quote, ready to order, ready to use national service that can be tailored via its online portal, DASH, supporting the connectivity needs of a broad cross-section of UK customers and partners. It is, we believe, the most complete connectivity platform in the UK. FluidOne have a market-leading staff culture and are proud to be part of the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For, with strong company values that underpin the quality of the delivery of service and the long- term relationships they build with customers, partners and suppliers. The FluidOne team has some of the best skills and connectivity domain knowledge in the market. www.fluidone.com