To strengthen and advise the Board, Philip Parker, an experienced quoted company chairman and CEO, joins Unitek as a non-executive director. Parker has a broad business background in sectors as varied as IT, electronics, training, financial services, security, oil services and consulting. He has led public and private enterprises, been involved in both venture capital and public equity fund raising and is experienced in corporate strategy, restructuring and focusing on shareholder value.
After graduating from Cambridge with a law degree he worked for 15 years in the computer industry - initially with IBM and then Sperry Univac, for the most part in the US. He and his family returned to the UK in the early eighties where he ran the European operations of Gulf & Western’s computer training and consulting group. During this time he completed the strategic marketing programme at Harvard Business School’s summer campus in Switzerland. He then joined Plessey where he became Group Director of Corporate Development involved in strategy, restructuring and M&A work. In 1990 he was appointed Chief Executive of North Sea Assets, one of the UK’s few quoted oil services groups, which over a period of five years he repositioned and sold at a healthy premium for shareholders.
In recent years, Parker has acted as an independent business consultant and business mentor/coach, and sits on the Board of a number of public and private enterprises. His non-commercial interests include governorship of Bath Spa University College and involvement with the establishment of a medical cyclotron unit in Calcutta. The appointment comes at a time when Unitek are consolidating major contracts with a number of blue chip companies, including British Airways and Eurostar, as well as undertaking high-profile work at other landmark venues such as Ascot Racecourse. The company has recently taken its first step into the Japanese market with the sale of 64sq.m of MS25 Megascreen to leading Tokyo-based sales and rental company, Hibino.
