Liv Garfield
At the age of 38 Liv Garfield became the youngest woman ever to lead a FTSE 100 company, when she became Chief Executive of Severn Trent Water, further cementing her position as a leading female figure in the corporate world. It is with great pleasure that we today award Liv with an Honorary Master of Arts.
Born and brought up in Harrogate, Liv describes herself as ‘a working mum of two kids with a busy day job’. Some might describe that as an understatement, with Liv having been in post as Chief Executive of Severn Trent Water since 2014.
Raised by her parents, who set up and ran a small engineering business, Liv attended schools in York and one just outside Harrogate before heading off to Cambridge University to study German and French.
Following her graduation from Cambridge University Liv spent a year working at the British Consulate in Brussels. Liv then moved on to spend five years at management consultancy Accenture as a consultant in the Communications and High Tech Market Unit, designing and implementing business change solutions across a number of industry sectors.
Liv then made the move to BT where she spent 12 years in a number of senior positions. For her last three at the company Liv held the role of Chief Executive of BT Openreach. During her tenure at Openreach she was responsible for the £2.5bn rollout of super fast fibre broadband, when she more than quadrupled the number of premises with fibre connections from 4m to 17m.
In 2013 Liv announced she would be leaving BT to take up the reigns as chief executive of FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent. Liv who loves working in customer, facing engineering businesses, said she loved the ‘cultural feel’ of Severn Trent. The same year she was also ranked in the top ten of Fortune Magazine’s ’40 under 40’ list. She was the highest ranking Brit in the exclusive league table of the world’s fastest rising young corporate stars.
Away from her day to day job, Liv held the position of non-executive director for Tesco for two years from 2013 to 2015. In September 2015 Liv was appointed as a Government Business Ambassador for UK Trade and Investment, now the Department for International Trade.
Liv is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council. The group meets to provide high level advice to the Prime Minister and senior ministers on critical business and economic issues facing the UK.
Away from work, Liv, who is married with two sons, is a huge fan of football and a lifelong committed Everton follower. Her grandfather was a groundsman at Goodison Park, which may have held some sway over where her football allegiance fell.
In recognition of her significant and ongoing contribution to the communications and water industries, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Arts, honoris causa, on Liv Garfield.