Stephen Carter, Baron Carter of Barnes

Carter joined the firm J Walter Thompson (JWT) in 1986[2] as a graduate trainee,[2][3] specializing in media and technology.[11] In 1994 JWT named him managing director[3] and CEO of J Walter Thompson Company UK & Ireland.[2][3] He then became JWT's managing director in 1995 and chief executive in 1997.[13]

In 2000 Carter was appointed the chief operating officer and managing director of UK cable TV company NTL UK & Ireland[3] (now Virgin Media).[4] The company was deeply in debt, and Carter helped oversee complete restructuring of the UK & Ireland business.[3] Given debts of £12 billion[14] and market conditions, the company was required to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,[3] with Carter presiding over the bankruptcy proceedings.[14] The company was poised to exit Chapter 11[15] when he left in 2003.[6] His compensation payoff, rumored to be close to £1.5 million[3] with a £600,000 bonus,[15] met with criticism from shareholders,[3] and in late 2007 the company resolved a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders by paying out $9 million in compensation.[15]

On 1 March 2003[13] Carter became the founding CEO of Ofcom (Office of Communications),[1][3][5] the British government's new media regulator. Among other issues, Carter focused on reducing broadband prices and switching from analog to digital television broadcasting.[3] He also led negotiations with BT on matters such as local loop bundling.[16] Stepping down from Ofcom in the summer of 2006, he was a part of the capability review team in 2006 and 2007 that reviewed the Department for International Development.[7]

He became the group chief executive officer of Brunswick Group LLP on 1 March 2007,[6] in what was a newly created position.[5][6] He resigned from the role in January 2008 to join the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. At that time, he also stepped down as a commissioner of the UK Commission for Employment & Skills and non-executive director of Royal Mail Holdings and Travis Perkins.[7]

He returned to public life in January 2008 as chief of strategy and principal advisor for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.[1][2][7] Serving as Brown's Downing Street Chief of Staff,[8] he was given responsibility for running political strategy, research, communications,[7] and the Policy Unit.[8] Carter was subsequently appointed Brown's communications minister in the House of Lords,[9][17] and in October 2008[1] he became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for three departments simultaneously:[1][11] serving as Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting and heading the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.[1] Because Carter was not a Member of Parliament, it was necessary to appoint him to the House of Lords for the ministerial positions.[18] He was created Baron Carter of Barnes, of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on 15 October 2008,[1][19] introduced to the House of Lords by Lord Currie and Lord Puttnam. He served in the House of Lords on the front bench in his capacity as Minister.[20]

In June 2009 he was again appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for three departments: the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting.[1] As Minister for Communications, Technology & Broadcasting, he commissioned and helped write The Digital Britain Report policy document, which "set out the groundwork for subsequent policies in areas such as superfast broadband,"[9] for example the Digital Economy Act 2010.[21] Carter announced on 11 June 2009 that he would be resigning from his ministerial post[22] in July 2009,[1] shortly after the publishing of Digital Britain.[4][23] He only wasn't excluded from the Lords in 2023 because he took the oath shortly before the session was over.

In April 2010[24] Carter joined the French-American company Alcatel-Lucent, becoming director of marketing, strategy and communications and relocating from London to Paris.[16] His official titles as of 2010 were executive vice president and chief strategy & marketing officer.[12] Beyond serving as a managing director,[25] he became the company's president of operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He returned to London and officially retired from Alcatel-Lucent in April 2013, although he continued to work on special projects for the company through that summer.[9]

Carter was appointed a director of the board of Informa,[25] an information services group,[10] in 2010.[25] In 2013, the Informa board unanimously voted to appoint him as CEO, succeeding Peter Rigby, in July 2013[25] - a role he assumed in early 2014.[26] As CEO of the company he maintained the focus on investing in subscriptions, bookings and sponsorship, as well as expanding in international conferences[4] such as the Monaco Yacht Show.[26] Under Carter, in 2016 the company acquired the American events company Penton for £1.2 billion.[4] In January 2018, Informa announced the proposed acquisition of UBM, an events group, for £3.9 billion.[27] Carter, who became chief executive of the combined group, said at that point that he would retain the other parts of Informa, including business intelligence and its academic publishing business Taylor & Francis.[28]