Virgin Media CEO and leadership

Lutz Schüler has been CEO of Virgin Media since June 2019, after spending ten months as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Lutz is also member of the Liberty Global Executive Leadership Team.

Lutz has a great track record in the German telecom market, with many years of strategic and operational experience and extensive experience in marketing, sales and operations across a wide range of products.

Prior to his time at Virgin Media, Lutz was CEO of Unity Media, a position he held from January 2011. Whilst at Unity Media, he played a key role in the acquisition of Kabel BW by Liberty Global and the subsequent integration of both companies. He served in several senior management roles with the Telefónica O2 group from 1998 onwards, lastly leading the integration of Hansenet Telekommunication GmbH as its CEO in Hamburg, when it was acquired by Telefónica O2 in early 2010. From 2006 to 2010, he was Managing Director, Marketing & Sales for Telefónica O2 in Germany. Before joining Telefónica O2 in 1998, he worked as a product manager with T-Mobile.

Kay Schwabedal is a Chief Digital Officer at Virgin Media and Gesellschafter/Owner at Market GmbH and is based in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. She has worked as CEO at HOSPITALITY.digital, CEO at Bavaria Yachtbau, and Board Member (Vorstand) at Ge Capital. Kay studied at Harvard Business School between 1989 and 1991 and Technische Universität Darmstadt between 1982 and 1988.

Before joining Virgin Media in 2019 as Chief Transformation Officer, Philipp worked for Unitymedia in Germany for 10 years as Senior Vice President, initially responsible for strategy and then the people and transformation function.

Philipp led Unitymedia’s large-scale transformation initiatives, including the integration of Kabel BW and other cable operators, as well as various company-wide reorganisation programs. He turned Unitymedia’s People function into a strategic partner to the business and a cultural enabler which helped the business to achieve a ‘best employer’ certificate several times.

At Virgin Media, Philipp is leading and supporting our most important transformation programmes. In October 2019, Philipp became our Chief People and Transformation Officer with the ambition to create a great workplace for our employees and to establish a high performance company culture.

Prior to Unitymedia, Philipp worked as a project manager at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants focusing on growth strategies and business model transformation.

Philipp holds a PhD in Strategic Management with a focus on E-Commerce Business Models.

Brigitte Trafford is a Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Virgin Media. She has experience at Maitland Consultancy and CABLE & WIRELESS COMMUNICATION, INC. and has worked as VP:Communications at Dow Jones Telerate Holding, Director:Communication at Dow Jones Telerate Holding, and Group Director:Communications at Banco Santander SA.

David Bouchier is a Chief Digital Entertainment Ofcr at Virgin Media.

Gregor was appointed Acting Chief Financial Officer of Virgin Media in November 2020 and has previously held a number of senior roles at the company and at Liberty Global over the past decade.

He joined Virgin Media in 2010 as a finance director, becoming a member of the company’s executive committee as Managing Director of Consumer in 2015. In 2017 Gregor joined Cable and Wireless Communications, Liberty Global’s sister business in LatAm and the Caribbean, as CFO before re-joining Virgin Media this year as Deputy CFO.

Jeanie was appointed as Chief Technology and Information Officer at Virgin Media in January 2019. Prior to this, she spent almost six years at Liberty Global, joining as Vice President of Network Operations in 2013, where she was responsible for network operations across 10 European countries. She was appointed Managing Director in 2017, where her role included responsibility for network engineering and operations.

Before joining Liberty Global, Jeanie held various senior management positions at Qwest and CenturyLink over a period of 15 years. Jeanie has 22 years’ experience in leading telco and cable business strategy, network planning, engineering, technology development and operations. She also obtained numerous executive leadership qualifications, including from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Jeff re-joined Virgin Media in May 2017 as Managing Director of Virgin Mobile after previously spending five years here, most recently as our Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for marketing, commercial strategy and customer experience. Over the last couple of years, Jeff’s role within the business has expanded. This started out after he became our Chief Customer Officer and the Managing Director of Operations in 2018, which then led into him becoming Chief Operating Officer in June 2019.

Jeff has also worked for TalkTalk as their Managing Director, responsible for Mobile, and before that he spent two years living and working in the Netherlands as the CEO of the telecoms business Tele2, where he oversaw the build and launch of their 4G mobile network.

Before his move into Telecoms, Jeff was the Group Marketing Director for Callaway Golf Europe, and prior to that he worked at Honda UK.

Jeff has an MBA and an MSc in International Marketing. In his limited spare time he acts a trustee of the Dallaglio Rugby Works, the charity set up by former England Rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio.

Joanna Boughtflower is a Business Manager to General Counsel and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Virgin Media and is based in Großbritannien. She has worked as Syria Analyst at UK Home Office and Senior Investigator at UK Home Office. Joanna studied at University of Oxford between 2011 and 2015.