Management Team

Jo Gretton is Telent’s Chief Executive Officer responsible for leading the company to deliver excellent customer service, continued growth and ensuring that Telent is a great place to work. Jo was a member of Telent’s founding management team in 2006. Previously she was Telent’s Chief Operating Officer and before that Head of Legal and Commercial which also included responsibility for Telent’s QEHS and Company Secretarial functions.

Jo is an Exeter law graduate and practised as a barrister before joining Marconi in 2000. She held various commercial and legal roles at Marconi and was Head of Legal for AsiaPac and the Americas prior to Telent’s formation.

Heather was appointed to Telent’s Board of directors in September 2006.

She joined Marconi in 2001 as Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and in December 2004 she became Finance Director of the Group’s Operations division.

In June 2005, she was appointed Group Financial Controller, and became Chief Financial Officer of Telent in September 2006.

Heather was previously Head of Investor Relations at Alstom (France) between 1998 and 2001, having joined the power and rail engineering company in 1995 as part of its Business Development team.

John was appointed Finance Director of Telent Technology Services Ltd in February 2006. He joined Marconi in 2001 as Financial Director for the Group’s Value Added Services division which delivered telecoms network services and projects to European Enterprise customers.

John started his career as a trainee accountant with GEC in 1991 and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1994. He worked in various finance roles within GEC’s Defence business gaining a breadth of experience in finance and operations. Latterly he was a Divisional Controller for Alenia Marconi prior to joining Marconi.

As Telent’s Chief Information Officer, Luan is responsible for leading the long-term IT strategy while focusing on synergies within Telent and across its IT portfolio, maximising the benefits to the business.

Luan was appointed to the role in January 2023 and has over 20 years’ experience successfully directing global business transformations and IT operations. She joins the business from Avon International, having previously held positions at Mondelez and Kraft Foods. Her experience will enable Telent to further develop and supports its drive for efficiency and help to ensure the business continues its growth in existing markets and capitalise on new market opportunities.

Nick was appointed Director of Legal and Commercial in March 2020. As well as leading the commercial and legal teams Nick also has responsibility for Telent’s QEHS function.

Nick joined the Group in 2003 working for Marconi Middle East in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Since relocating back to the UK in 2007, Nick has been the commercial lead in each of Telent’s business areas, most recently in Infrastructure Services. This has allowed him to develop an in-depth understanding of the different needs of Telent's customers and the variety of services the business provides.

Throughout his career, Nick has had various supply chain management and commercial roles, predominantly in the communications sector working for mobile phone operators or technology providers.

As Group Engineering Director, Mick is responsible for all engineering activities across the business including; solutions development, design, testing, validation, and final customer sign-off.

Mick joined Telent at the start of 2021 and has over 39 years' experience working in engineering within the UK. Prior to joining Telent, he worked at Jaguar Land Rover for 20 years in various leadership positions in both engineering and operational roles including; XF Programme Director and JLR Strategy Director. He then spent ten years at JCB Excavators as Group Engineering Director and latterly as Managing Director.

Mick also holds a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from Warwick University.

Chris is responsible for the development and implementation of group strategy, including organic growth, partnerships and M&A.

Chris completed an MBA at London Business School and started his career with Deloitte Consulting. He joined Marconi in 1999, and subsequently became part of the initial Telent management team in 2006.

Prior to his current role he was Managing Director of Telent’s NRTS business, responsible for delivery to Highways England, and previous to that, Telent’s Technology Solutions business, responsible for activities in the Traffic, Enterprise, Public Safety and Defence sectors.

Jemimah Parnell was appointed to the role of Group HR Director in May 2021 and is responsible for providing both HR and Internal Communications services across the business.

Jemimah started her HR career working in Grand Metropolitan and Trusthouse Forte performing a number of HR roles. She then moved into telecoms and worked for Mercury Communications which later became Cable and Wireless. She was also the People Director for Three Mobile for many years.

In addition to this, Jemimah has also performed HR Director roles in Sopra Steria, Barclaycard and Audley Travel.

Steve is the Managing Director for Transport and is responsible for developing and implementing strategic plans, leading major operational organisations, delivering turn-key programmes, driving operational improvement, and developing customer relationships and strategy.

Over a wide and varied career spanning 34 years at GEC/Marconi JCB and Telent, Steve has gained considerable experience in Operations, Projects, Services Business and Engineering. Before his role as MD for Transport, Steve held several other senior positions in Telent including Director and General Manager for the Telent Metro business and MD for Network Services which has allowed him to develop a breadth of knowledge across the company.

Steve also holds an MBA from the Open University.

Peter was appointed Managing Director of Telent’s Network Services business in April 2016. This role is responsible for the management of Telent’s Service Provider, Public Safety, Defence, Enterprise and Ireland businesses.

Peter started his career in the rail industry, working in a technical support office, after graduating from Aberdeen University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Due to the privatisation of British Rail he worked for a number of companies before spending over 10 years at Jarvis. During this time he progressed through various engineering, delivery, project and business management roles.

In 2010 Peter joined Telent, working within the project management group in the Rail business, before progressing to General Manager, Operations. He then moved to work within the Carillion Telent Joint Venture for two years, latterly as Operations Director, before taking up his current role.

Following the integration of Telent's Infrastructure Services business in Network Services In 2024, Ric moved into the role of Growth and Business Development Director

Ric’s journey with Telent spans more than two decades, since September 1998, when he joined as an apprentice software engineer. Between then and 2003 Ric worked in the technology support department before moving into operations, working on several independent network projects.

In 2017, Ric became National Service Director for what was Telent Infrastructure Services business, which deploys networks on behalf of several customers including Openreach, Gigaclear and Virgin Media.

In 2018 Ric Welsby became the Managing Director for Infrastructure Services at Telent. He was responsible for building and maintaining our customers’ access networks - everything between the telephone exchange and customer premises.