Liv Garfield

Liv Garfield
Olivia Garfield speaking at The London Conference on Cyberspace, 2011
Born	Olivia Ruth Burgess
Nationality	British
Education	Bootham School, York
Alma mater	New Hall, Cambridge
Occupation	Chief executive
Title	Chief Executive of Severn Trent plc
Term	April 2014-
Predecessor	Tony Wray
Successor	Incumbent
Spouse(s)	Morgan Garfield
Children	Two sons

Olivia Ruth Garfield CBE (born 10 September 1975) is a British businesswoman. She is the chief executive of Severn Trent, and formerly the chief executive of Openreach, a BT Group business.

Early life[]

Olivia was raised in Harrogate.^[1] Her parents, who were originally from Liverpool, run a project management and engineering business in Harrogate. Her grandfather was the groundsman at Goodison Park.^[1] She was educated at Birklands Belmont School (now Belmont Grosvenor) in Birstwith near Harrogate, followed by the co-educational Bootham School, an independent school in York.^{[citation needed]} She had an ambition to be a presenter of Blue Peter. She read German and French (Modern and Medieval Languages) at the all-female New Hall, Cambridge, now Murray Edwards.^[1]

Career[]

After graduating, she spent a year working at the British Consulate in Brussels.^[2] She then worked at Accenture as a consultant in their communications and high-tech market division for six years.^[3]

BT[]

In January 2003, she joined BT as general manager, running a desk-based sales team.^[3] She later became BT's director of strategy and regulatory affairs.^[3] On 1 April 2011 she was made chief executive of their Openreach division; Openreach had been formed in 2006.^[4][5] In that position, she spearheaded and oversaw the £2.5 billion rollout of fibre broadband (BT Infinity service) to two thirds of the UK.^[3] In March 2017, BT received the biggest Ofcom fine ever due to inappropriate use of the Deemed Consent to delay Ethernet provision to other providers, which started while she was CEO.^[6] In 2013, Garfield was identified by Fortune Magazine as one of the world's fastest-rising corporate stars. In 2014, Fortune called her the 14th Most Powerful Woman in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.^[7]

Severn Trent[]

In April 2014, she became the chief executive of Severn Trent.^[8] In July 2015, while she was the chief executive of Severn Trent she oversaw the takeover of Severn Trent Water Purification, a subsidiary of Severn Trent Plc, by Italian company DeNora ^[9] which resulted in redundancies. Then in November 2017, the company announced plans to sell its surplus land.^[10] As of May 2018, Garfield's role at Severn Trent made her the youngest female CEO of a FTSE 100 company.^[11]

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to the water industry.^[12]

Tesco[]

In February 2013, she became a non-executive director at Tesco. She stepped down in February 2015.^[13]

In May 2018, Garfield was announced as the 2018 winner of the prestigious Veuve Cliquot Business Woman Award.^[11]

Personal life[]

Her husband Morgan Garfield (born 22 January 1976), whom she met at university when he was at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, runs a property investment fund.^{[citation needed]} She has two sons, niece and a sister and brother. She married in 2002 in North Yorkshire. She lives in Wandsworth Common; her residence was originally occupied by David Lloyd George, Prime Minister during the First World War.

See also[]

• , Chairman of Severn Trent since July 2010, and former Chairman of RWE npower from 2003–09.
• Véronique Laury, French CEO of Kingfisher plc since February 2015
• Moya Greene, Canadian CEO of the Royal Mail from July 2010
• Dame Carolyn McCall, CEO of EasyJet since 2010

References[]

External links[]

• Severn Trent