Biography
Harris spent the first 15 years of his career in IT at Midland bank in the UK (now HSBC). Having left Midland in 1986 to join technology company Space-Time Systems he returned in 1988 and led the development and launch of Firstdirect – a Midland Subsidiary which was the world's first major telephone bank. It was launched in 1989 with Harris as CEO.
In September 1991 he became Chief Executive of Mercury Communications (the first competitor to British Telecom in the UK) and Chairman of the mobile operator Mercury One 2 One, (now operating as T-Mobile). Mercury Communications was the first Telco in the world to provide integrated competition (local and long distance) to an established former monopoly. During Harris's tenure Mercury's turnover grew from £1bn pa to more than £1.6bn and he established a consumer brand with over 4m customers. The Mercury consumer business was placed in a 51:49 joint venture with MediaOne in 1997 and was sold to NTL for $10bn in 2000.
In 1995 Harris moved to Prudential plc to create its bank. He was founding CEO of Prudential Banking plc and then the CEO of its successor, Egg – the first major player in internet banking in the UK and for several years the largest internet bank in the world. Egg went from start up to a billion pound public company in two years when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2000 at a value of £1.3bn. Harris retired as CEO of Egg in January 2001 but continued to serve on the Board as Vice Chairman until 2005. Egg was sold to Citi Group in 2007 for $1.2bn.
Harris became Chairman of Garlik in 2005. Garlik has offices in Richmond (UK) and New York and distributes an identity defense product known as Datapatrol through banks, insurance companies and broadband providers. By June 2008 the company had raised $18m funding from its founders and UK venture firms 3i and DH Ventures (part of Doughty Hanson & Co). In 2011 Harris led the sale of Garlik to Experian and left the company when the deal was completed on 23 December 2011.
He was Chair of Innovation at Royal Bank of Scotland from 2005 until March 2009, establishing a group wide innovation programme.
Harris won the prestigious BT Flagship Award for innovation in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Mike Harris (entrepreneur)
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