Our leadership team

Mark Evans became Chief Executive Officer of Telefonica UK Limited (O2), which is part of the global telecommunications group Telefónica S.A, in August 2016. He was previously appointed to the Board of Directors as the Chief Financial Officer, a position he held since January 2012. The company has seen a return to revenue and profit growth and achieved the strongest customer acquisition and satisfaction in the UK market during his tenure. Mark sits on the Telefonica SA Executive Committee.

Prior to joining the company in 2012, Mark held a number of senior positions within Vodafone Group including Global Technology CFO, UK CFO and Ireland CFO, while also holding the acting CEO role in Ireland. In an earlier role, Mark was the Group Financial Controller for ntl.

Mark is Chairman of Tesco Mobile, the largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator in the UK, a joint venture of Tesco and Telefonica. He also sits on the Board of giffgaff Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of O2. He stepped down as a Non-Executive Director of Hiscox Insurance at the end of February 2017 after more than three years.

Mark is an Associate Member of the Chartered Management Accountants (ACMA) and was educated at Southampton Solent University.

Committee membership:

• Chair of Operating Committee
• Chair of Strategy Committee

Patricia Cobian was appointed to the Board of Directors as the Chief Financial Officer, Telefonica UK Limited (O2) in 2016. She had previously been the Strategy & Transformation Director since September 2014.

Before joining the Executive Team, Patricia led the post-merger integration planning of Telefonica Deutschland with ePlus through to deal completion. In her previous role as the Director for Business Development in Telefonica Europe, she led strategy, marketing innovation and played a key role in a number of partnerships, spectrum auctions, infrastructure sharing deals and key acquisitions and divestitures in the region. She joined the Telefonica Group in 2006 as VP Strategy and Development for Telefonica Europe. Patricia sits on The Supervisory Board, Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG and is a member of the Telefonica SA Executive Committee.

Patricia is an expert in telecommunications, media and technology, with over 15 years’ track record in leading teams at the intersection of evolving customer trends, market structure and technology. Before joining Telefonica, she was a consultant with the TMT and Corporate Finance practices of McKinsey & Company, working with clients in Europe, Latin America and the US. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014 and was appointed Strategic Adviser to Lumia Capital, an expansion-stage VC in 2016.

Patricia started her career in Hewlett-Packard and holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Pontificia Comillas-ICAI, Spain.

Committee Membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee
• Pensions Committee
• Assurance Forum

Ann Pickering joined Telefonica UK Limited (O2) in 2004. She was appointed to the Executive Team as HR Director in 2008 and CHRO & Chief of Staff in 2018. Prior to O2, Ann worked for Marks and Spencer, Fidelity and Xansa (now Steria).

Under Ann’s direction O2 has implemented a number of industry leading policies and schemes. Its Family Policy was updated in early 2019 increasing paid paternity leave to 14 weeks for heterosexual and same-sex couples. In 2016 it introduced a paid 14 week Career Returners Programme offering the chance to learn new skills and adapt to a job after an extended career break of two or more years.

During her tenure O2 has achieved a Top 20 place in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the ‘Sunday Times Top 100 Employers in the UK’ and was named 8th in the UK Best Places to Work. In 2018 Ann was recognised as the number one ‘HR Most Influential Practitioner’ in the UK by HR Magazine in partnership with LifeSight. She calls upon business, government and educators to work together to ensure there are sufficient digitally-skilled workers to drive the UK economy, and is extremely passionate about social inclusion and promoting career opportunities for all young people in the digital sector.

Ann is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Development. Outside of O2 she is Chair of the Advisory Board of Sheffield University Management School where she is also Visiting Professor of HRM and Employability. She is a Trustee of Breast Cancer Now and of Step Up to Serve.

Committee Membership:

• Chair of Pensions Committee
• Chair of Responsible Business Taskforce
• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee

Derek McManus joined the business in 1987 and is the Chief Operating Officer for Telefonica UK Limited (O2), responsible for all aspects of Network, IT, Fraud and Security, Smart Metering, as well as sponsoring 5G for the company. He was appointed as a member of the Executive Team in April 2007 as the CTO and became the COO four years later.

He has enjoyed over 30 years in the mobile industry in various technical and business roles. Derek has led a number of significant transformations at O2 at a technology and business level. These include developing O2’s online capability, creating the O2 Labs, changing how we build infrastructure through our ground breaking network sharing with Vodafone, building our industry leading customer service capability and pioneering our customer centric approach to how we build and manage our network. Derek is also Non-Executive Chairman for Airfi Networks.

Derek holds an MSc in Telecommunications Business from UCL.

Committee Membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee
• Assurance Forum

Ed Smith has been General Counsel for Telefonica UK Limited (O2) since 2011 and a member of the Executive Team since 2016. He joined the company in 2001 and is responsible for the legal, regulatory, company secretarial, compliance, risk and internal audit functions.

Ed qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1997 having trained at Pinsent Masons. He was an associate in its corporate team before joining Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 1999.

Ed holds a degree in History from the University of Sheffield, a CPE from the University of Huddersfield and LPC from the College of Law, Guildford.

Committee membership:

• Chair of the National Security Committee
• Chair of the Assurance Forum
• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee
• Pensions Committee

Gareth Turpin was appointed Sales Director of Telefonica UK Limited (O2) in 2017, before which he was the Service and Transformation Director. Gareth is a member of the Executive Team. He joined the business in 2001 as Head of Incident Problem and Change and moved from there into strategic and operational leadership roles in Operations, Sales and Customer Service.

He is responsible for defining the company’s UK distribution strategy and delivering the customer and commercial outcomes from all Sales and Service activities. This includes all consumer sales and retention channels (covering O2 stores and franchises, online shop, telesales and the relationships with independent retailers), SMB sales channels, customer service for consumer and business customers, and accountability for O2’s Supply Chain function.

Gareth is a Customer Advisory Board member for Vizolution and is also an Industry Advisor Board Member for the Contact Centre Association.

Committee membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee

Jo Bertram was appointed Managing Director, Business in August 2019, having joined Telefonica UK Limited (O2) as Chief Digital & Strategy Officer in April 2018. She is a member of the Executive Team and is responsible for O2 UK’s B2B and wholesale businesses, including product management and development (for products such as mobile, connectivity, security, IoT, data, etc.) marketing, sales, and wholesale and MVNO relationships.

Prior to joining the company, Jo was the Regional General Manager for Northern Europe operations at Uber, covering the UK, Ireland, Nordics, Baltics and Benelux. She managed the launch of Uber in over 40 cities and towns beyond London and its entry into Ireland, Finland, Denmark and Norway. She has also been an Executive in Residence at EQT Ventures.

Jo has more than eight years of management consultancy experience, having worked for both McKinsey and Accenture. She holds a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, France.

Committee membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee

Nicola Green was appointed as Corporate Affairs Director at Telefonica UK Limited (O2) in 2016. She became a member of the Executive Team in June 2019, works directly with the CEO and offers strategic counsel to the Executive Team. Nicola is responsible for Public Affairs, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Internal and External Communications.

Since joining the business as Head of Media and Communications in 2003 she has led her team to win PR Week’s In House Team of the Year in 2010 and 2013. She directed the re-positioning project of The Millennium Dome to ‘The O2’ and was responsible for the media campaign to introduce the iPhone to the UK. Under Nicola’s leadership, O2 has achieved the highest corporate reputation in the sector.

Nicola is a communications industry figurehead, an active campaigner for Women in PR and a regular feature in PR Week’s UK Power Book. In May 2018 she graduated with a Non-Executive Director Diploma from The Financial Times. In 2019, Nicola received the Individual Achievement EMEA SABRE Award by the Holmes Report.

Committee Membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee
• Responsible Business Taskforce

Nina Bibby joined O2 and the Executive Team as Marketing & Consumer Director in November 2013. She was appointed Chief Marketing Officer of Telefonica UK Limited (O2) in 2016. She is also a member of the Executive Team. Nina has commercial profit and loss accountability for the consumer and SMB mobile business and is responsible for marketing across O2, including brand, marketing communications, data analytics, customer experience and devices.

Nina has over 20 years' experience in the marketing industry. Prior to joining O2, she was Chief Marketing Officer at Barclaycard and was Senior Vice President of Global Brand Management at International Hotels Group (IHG). Nina also held a variety of roles at Diageo for over nine years including Commercial Strategy Director, Brand Director for Baileys and Pimm's and Global Brand Director of Reserve Brands.

Nina has an MBA from INSEAD and BS in Foreign Service (Economics) from Georgetown University, USA. Her early career after business school was in consulting, including working for Gemini Consulting for two years. Nina is a Non-Executive Director of Barratt Developments plc, a Fellow of the Marketing Society, sits on the Council of the Marketing Group of Great Britain and is a Trustee of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Committee Membership:

• Strategy Committee
• Operating Committee
• Assurance Forum