Federation of Communications Services Deputy Chairman Itret Latif has been appointed interim chief executive of the industry trade organisation following the departure of Chris Pateman, who retired last November.
Latif has an energy utility background and was responsible for the development and integration of the retail telecoms business for Southern Electric and subsequently SSE.
As an experienced FCS board member, he has developed an appreciation and understanding of the essential nature of Business Radio and the Installers Group on top of his understanding of the needs of the Fixed and Mobile communication community.
Latif has been invited to provide evidence to both House of Commons and House of Lords on telecoms and energy. In his evidence to the House of Lords in 2012 he was first to identify broadband as essential service and a utility.
At the same hearing, he called for restructuring of BT with BT Openreach being separated to become legal entity owning the infrastructure and engineers.