Chris Halbard

Chris Halbard began his career by training as a Chartered Accountant immediately after leaving university. Woking as a tax manager Chris Halbard was soon well-versed in multi-national business operations with a specialised interest in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. This training and experience subsequently led to Chris Halbard being employed by AT&T, and subsequently Lucent Technologies, to work mainly in the emerging Eastern European market, initially as EMEA Finance Director. During his tenure at Lucent Chris Halbard undertook a number of roles with ever increasing responsibilities, finally being appointed as COO in 2001, and Vice-President of Sales and Business Development in 2003.

As Vice-President of Finance for the European, Middle Eastern and African markets, Chris Halbard optimised operations and supported business strategy through the development and implementation of structural redesign. Chris Halbard improved efficiency and visibility within the Order-to-Cash cycle, which in turn increased profitability and enhanced customer relations. With full financial responsibility for the regions, Chris Halbard introduced new ways of working which both cut unnecessary expenditure and increased sales through the restructuring of staff and operations. By 2001 the achievements of Chris Halbard led to his promotion through the ranks to the position of COO of Integrated Network Solutions division of Lucent in EMEA.

As COO Chris Halbard was responsible for dealing with the structural inefficiencies that arose from the issues which arise when a company goinges through a period of rapid growth, including the reduction of the workforce through proactive approaches and the outsourcing of manufacturing. As a specialist in corporate restructuring, Chris Halbard was able to cut the workforce from 26,000 to 7,000 employees without recourse to industrial action and without compromising on the efficiency and smooth running of the business as a whole.

Chris Halbard was eventually made Vice-President of Sales and Business Development EMEA for Lucent in April 2003. In this role Chris Halbard was directly responsible for a team of over 600 and was tasked to deliver both short-term sales and profitability targets and long-term EU strategy objectives. Over the course of two years Chris Halbard was able to take the business into profitability with annual growth in excess of 17% per annum. When Chris Halbard eventually moved on from