Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead (born 28 July 1964), is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

businessman who was formerly

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

BT Group BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

. A

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, he previously served as the UK government's Minister of State for Trade and Investment. He was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 15 July 2013 taking the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

Baron Livingston of Parkhead.

Early and personal life

The fourth generation son of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago, Livingston's family owned a factory making flying jackets and police uniforms. Livingston is the youngest of four children brought up in

Kelvinside Kelvinside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is bounded by Broomhill, Dowanhill and Hyndland to the south with Kelvindale and the River Kelvin to the north. It is an affluent area of Gl ...

, his father was a general practitioner who practised medicine in

Parkhead Parkhead () is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet (place), hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necro ...

. Livingston was educated at Hillhead Primary School before attending the independent

Kelvinside Academy Kelvinside Academy is a private day school in Glasgow, Scotland, founded in 1878. It has a capacity of over 600 pupils and spans two years of Nursery, six years of Junior School (primary school), a transition year of Senior Preparatory, and six ...

. He married his university contemporary, Deborah, in 1989. They live in

Elstree Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, which follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of the ...

, Hertfordshire and have two children (one son, one daughter).

Career

After graduating with an economics degree from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

at the age of 19, he trained as an accountant with

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...

, where, on assignment, he became the first chief accountant of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper. Livingston then moved to

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

, and then

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm 3i. After being spotted by Sir Stanley Kalms, he moved to the corporate development department of Dixons Group in 1991, before becoming the youngest

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most market capitalisation, highly capitalised ...

finance director at the age of 32. After the sale of Freeserve, Livingston joined BT Group as finance director, before he took up the post of CEO Retail, on 7 February 2005. He replaced Ben Verwaayen as Group CEO on 1 June 2008. Livingston was a non-executive director of

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...

, where he was appointed to the board on 1 October 2007. In 2015, after he voted for cutting tax credits, Celtic fans launched a petition to have him removed from the board. Livingston resigned from the board in June 2017. Livingston became Chairman of

Currys plc Currys plc is a British multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer, and services company headquartered in London, England, which was formed in 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse Group. It is listed on the ...

in August 2017 and he served in that role until September 2022. In March 2025 it was announced that Livingston would replace Richard Thornburg as non executive chairman of the board for

S&P Global S&P Global Inc. (prior to 2016, McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013, The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financia ...

effective May 7th 2025.

Arms

References

External links

Lord Livingston of Parkhead – UK Parliament

Lord Livingston of Parkhead - www.gov.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingston, Ian 1964 births Living people British technology chief executives Politicians from Glasgow Nobility from Glasgow Scottish Jews Scottish people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Scottish people of Polish-Jewish descent People educated at Kelvinside Academy Alumni of the University of Manchester Scottish accountants Scottish chief executives 3i Group people BT Group people Celtic F.C. directors and chairmen Conservative Party (UK) life peers Government ministers of the United Kingdom Businesspeople from Glasgow Directors of football clubs in Scotland Life peers created by Elizabeth II Jewish British politicians 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 21st-century Scottish businesspeople