Liv Garfield

Early life

Olivia was raised in Harrogate. Her parents, who were originally from Liverpool, run a project management and engineering business in Harrogate. Her grandfather was the groundsman at Goodison Park. 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. 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.

Career

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

BT

In January 2003, she joined BT as general manager, running a desk-based sales team. She later became BT's director of strategy and regulatory affairs. On 1 April 2011 she was made chief executive of their Openreach division; Openreach had been formed in 2006. In that position, she spearheaded and oversaw the £2.5 billion rollout of fibre broadband (BT Infinity service) to two thirds of the UK. On 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.

Severn Trent

In April 2014, she became the chief executive of Severn Trent.

In February 2013, she has became a non-executive director at Tesco she stepped down in February 2015

Personal life

Her husband Morgan Garfield (born 22 January 1976), who she met at university when he was at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, runs a property investment fund. She has two sons and a sister and brother. She married in 2002 in North Yorkshire.