Ian Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead

Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead (born 28 July 1964), is a Scottish businessman who was formerly chief executive of BT Group. A Conservative member of the House of Lords, he previously served as the UK government's Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
He was created a life peer on 15 July 2013 taking the title Baron Livingston of Parkhead.

Early and personal life

The fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago, Livingston's family owned a factory making flying jackets and police uniforms. Brought up in Kelvinside, his father was a general practitioner who practised medicine in Parkhead. The youngest of four children, Livingston's oldest brother serves as a judge, the second son is a partner in an accountancy firm, and his sister is a professor of psychiatry at University College, London.

Livingston was educated at Hillhead Primary School before attending the independent Kelvinside Academy, where he won a fantasy share-investment competition, turning £10,000 into £30,000 in just 10 months.

Livingston married his university contemporary, Deborah, in 1989. They live at Elstree, Hertfordshire, with their two children (one son, one daughter).

Career

After graduating with an economics degree from the University of Manchester at the age of 19, he trained as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, where, on assignment, he became the first chief accountant of The Independent newspaper. Livingston then moved to Bank of America, and then private equity 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 finance director at the age of 32. Under then CEO John Clare, Livingston became key in creating PC World and the broadband provider Freeserve.

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 is a non-executive director of Celtic F.C., 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.