Experienced CFO, Jerry Elliott, hooks up with Virgin

Elliott hails from educational publisher Stamford, Connecticut-based Cengage
Learning where he served as CFO and COO, and has relocated from the US to
Nasdaq-listed Virgin Media’s headquarters in Hook, Hampshire, to join the
broadband company.

He succeeds Charles Gallagher who has been caretaking the CFO role on a
temporary basis since the last CFO, Jacques Kerrest, left last March to return
to the US. Elliott’s tenure at Cengage was just one year having joined in
January 2008.

Elliott started work at Virgin Media on 5 January, but Gallagher will stay to
complete a handover period until the end of March. Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett
noted Elliott’s “strong experience in finance, capital markets, investor
relations and M&A”, which will no doubt come in handy as the company hunkers
down for recession.

In November the company announced 2,200 proposed layoffs from its call
centres and engineering staff.

Despite only staying with Cengage for one year, Elliott brings several years’
experience at board-level in the US media and communications sectors, having
served as president and CEO for cellular tower operator Global Signal prior to
joining Cengage.

Elliott is credited with readying Global Signal for sale in 2007 by
accelerating revenue growth and significantly upping cashflow.