john carrington, BORN 1945
from postal services to mobile phones
John Carrington, whose father had worked for the General Post Office, joined it direct from university in 1967. He wanted a job that would get him out and about, not stuck behind a desk. His first few years were on the postal side, after which he spent two years as Personal Assistant to the Chairman of the Post Office, Sir William Ryland - working fourteen and fifteen hour days. After that he moved to the telecomms side of the Post Office, joining the international division as deputy head of finance, then as director of commercial strategy. He was next appointed to head BT’s new cellular mobile phone operation, Cellnet, which would operate in competition with a licensed commercial rival, Vodafone. After 22 years at BT, Carrington moved to Cable & Wireless, and then to the international mobile network company MSI. This was headed by Mo Ibrahim (now Sir Mo) - whom Carrington had known since they worked together at BT. MSI prepared bids for, and designed, mobile networks all over the world.
This life story was reproduced in 2024, with kind permission, from the Archives of IT website at archivesit.org.uk.