Board of Directors

Director’s responsibilities

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Strategic Report, Directors’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

UK Company law requires the directors to prepare Group and Company Financial Statements for each financial year.  Under that law the directors are required to prepare Group Financial Statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (‘IFRS’) as adopted by the EU and the rules of the London Stock Exchange for companies trading securities on the Alternative Investment Market. The Directors have chosen to prepare the Group financial statements in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the EU.

The Group financial statements are required by law and IFRS adopted by the EU to present fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Group for that year. 

In preparing each of the group and company financial statements, the directors are required to:

  • select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
  • make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
  • state that the group had complied with IFRS, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
  • prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the group and the company will continue in business.

The directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Group and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation.  They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Directors of Bigblu Broadband plc

Frank Waters
Chief Executive Officer

Frank qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ICAS) with Ernst & Young in 1989. Frank has spent the last 20 years, primarily as finance director, in a number of fast-growing entrepreneurial companies in the mobile, consumer electronics and technology sectors. Frank has been actively involved in a number of corporate finance transactions and more recently responsible for the negotiation of substantial network contracts whilst at Redeem Limited, the mobile phone recycler. Frank was instrumental in the sale of DX Communications alongside Andrew Walwyn to what is now Telefonica.

Frank joined Bigblu Broadband in the autumn of 2013 as Chie Financial Officer responsible for Group finance, commercial, legal, HR, IT and M&A matters and assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in May 2024.

Michael Tobin
Non-Executive Chairman

Michael joined the Board and became Chairman in September 2015. Michael chairs the Board’s remuneration and nomination committees and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Michael is a highly successful serial technology entrepreneur & pioneer with over 30 years’ experience in the telecoms & technology sector.

As Chief Executive, Michael Tobin OBE led Telecity Group plc, a leading FTSE250 Technology company from 2002 to 2015.

He joined Redbus in 2002 delisting it from the main market to AIM, & then took it private, winning the London Business Awards “Business Turnaround of the Year” award in 2005. After engineering the merger with Telecity he successfully re-listed Telecity Group in October 2007 winning the accolade of UK Innovation Awards IPO of the year 2008 & the techMARK Achievement of the year in the same year. Subsequently he grew the business from £6m market cap in 2002 to being a top performer in the FTSE250 worth over £2bn, being recognised as Britain’s Most admired Tech Company in 2012.

Prior to joining Telecity Group, Michael headed-up Fujitsu’s e-Commerce operations in Frankfurt, Germany. Before that, he ran ICL’s Danish outsourcing subsidiary out of Copenhagen Denmark. He also held several senior positions based in Paris for over 11 years including Business Development Director at International Computer Group coordinating global distribution of IT infrastructure. As a Non Exec Director, Tobin was instrumental in transforming PACNET in Hong Kong from a Sub Sea Cable operator to a successful Datacenter operator culminating in its sale in 2015 to Telstra for $800m

Michael holds a number of non-executive and Chairmanship roles including EdgeConneX, Audioboom, Ultraleap, Pulsant, NorthC Datacenters, Everarc PLC, Sungard Availability Services, DC Byte, Instrumental, ScaleUp Group UK. LeaseWeb and The Lewis Moody Foundation where he is Ambassador.

He was named ‘UK IT Services Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst & Young in 2009, 2010 & 2011; PWC Tech CEO of the Year 2007; London Chamber of Commerce ‘Business Person of the Year’ for 2009 and 2010; In 2009 was named techMARK ‘Personality of the Year’; In 2007 and 2009 he was the winner of the DCE Outstanding Leader of the Year, and in 2008 won ‘Data Centre Business Person of the Year’ at the Data Centre Leaders awards. He was awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Industry’ at the Data Centre Europe awards and in 2011 received a Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the industry. In 2005 he was named number 31 of Britain’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs and in 2014 he was honoured in the Queens New Years Honours List with the Order of the British Empire medal for Services to the Digital Economy.

Paul Howard
Non-Executive Director

Paul joined the Board in September 2015 and serves on the Board’s remuneration and Audit and Risk Committees. Paul is an advisor to Oakley Capital Corporate Finance and joined the business in April 2015. Paul spent over 15 years with Cazenove as a telecoms and media analyst and was one of Cazenove’s youngest ever partners. He won numerous awards from Reuters and Starmine and was Head of the Number One ranked European telecoms research team as ranked by the Institutional Investor in 2011. Paul left J.P. Morgan Cazenove in 2011 and became an investor and non-executive director of various small telecoms companies. He also spent a year with Morgan Stanley in 2014 helping their Select Risk equity trading business.

Christopher Mills
Non-Executive Director

Christopher joined the Board in May 2019. Christopher founded Harwood Capital Management in 2011, a successor of the former parent company of Harwood, J O Hambro Capital Management which he co-founded in 1993. He is Chief Executive and Investment Manager of North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc and Chief Investment Officer of Harwood Capital LLP. He is a Non-Executive Director of several companies. Christopher was a Director of Invesco MIM, where he was head of North American Investments and Venture Capital, and of Samuel Montagu International.

Philip Moses
Non-Executive Director

Philip joined the Board in May 2020 and chairs the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee. Phillip is a highly creative Finance Director with an extensive track record within the telco sector, having served in Executive positions at BT Group plc (where he spent 19 years) and Liquid Telecom. He has also worked for Arqiva, Legal and General plc and London City Airport (where he was Interim CFO). Philip has a successful track record of increasing the enterprise value of complex organisations, both plc and Private Equity, through expert leadership of the Finance function combined with strong commercial instincts and a deep understanding of how businesses make money. Experienced in all aspects of finance with a particular focus on financing, investor relations, strategy, operational efficiency, management information and cost control. Philip is a skilled negotiator with proven deal capabilities and is widely respected as a popular and supportive team builder and leader

Update 7 July 2021