Page 22 - BOSS Today Issue 44

BOSS Today SS Today #44#44 60 SECOND INTERVIEW
BO

WE ALL NEED

TO GO ON THIS

JOURNEY TOGETHER!

Specialist OP market researcher Martin Wilde talks to Simon Drakeford, CEO of EO Group and
new Chairman of BOSS.

MW: Please can you give me a history of your years I have also been the founding performance using some of BOSS’s
career to date? Chairman of 15Gifts which is a industry performance insights.
SD: After university I sold advertising SaaS machine learning, decision
for trade publications, but then engine in TMT. MW: Congratulations on being appointed BOSS
went back to university part Chairman. What do you see as being the
time and studied marketing and MW: Please describe your involvement in BOSS main functions of this role?
then got a job as the Ecommerce to date. SD: I think it is primarily to support
Manager for the Daily Express SD: I have always tried to support the CEO and co-ordinate the
and Daily Star. I then became BOSS as much as possible and Non-Executives to ensure that we
Ecommerce Manager for Orange, joined the Board three years ago. I leverage the significant experience
tasked with launching the Orange also sit on a number of committees that sits around the boardroom
Shop online: I was working with which tend to focus on member table to enable the future
incredibly smart people and engagement and marketing. development of the Federation.
Orange went from being number
four to number one in the market. MW: How has BOSS membership benefitted the EO MW: What do you think that you can bring to the
I then moved to T-Mobile as Group? role?
eBusiness Director, where I also SD: The EO Group has always been SD: I’m hoping I can help Amy
completed my Henley MBA, which members of BOSS: we benefit from Hutchinson (new CEO), by
fostered entrepreneurial urges in both the networking and by using leveraging my experience of being
me that I could no longer resist! some of its services, such as HR, a senior leader at a relatively
In 2007 I met George Karibian, which offer incredible quality and young age (I was the same age
the founder of Euroffice, and value. Younger members of our as Amy when I became CEO of
moved to be CEO of a 17 people business learn a lot from attending Euroffice) and by supporting her
pureplay office supplies reseller. the training programmes and induction into the industry. I also
Following a management buyout meeting people from other parts hope that my experience of sitting
in 2010, Euroffice became part of the industry, while my senior on different types of Boards - in
of the EO Group. For the last five management like to benchmark our large corporates and with start-

22
22