Statement
My name is Neil McRae. I’m BT Group Chief Architect and MD of Technology and Strategy, I also play pinball at the weekend and I’m named after Neil Armstrong.
This year marks my 33rd year in our industry! I hacked networking code whilst at Uni and then I started working at a small organisation, a founding member of the LINX, Demon Internet, and went on to work at Easynet onto COLT, C&W and now for the last nine years or so I’ve been working at BT. Today yes I work at a large organisation but I’ve been successful in a large organisation because for the first half of my career I worked at smaller organisations and learned about the importance of customers and value.
I’ve worked with the LINX since before it even had a name and I’ve served on the board for many years and the previous candidate statements that you have seen cover the long history I have had with the LINX working with the company before it even had a name. I’m in the Internet and Telecommunications industry for the love of the mission. To get people connected and being part of LINX is for me a critically and personally important part of the mission.
My personal background is a story of self learned skills and falling into my dream career even before most realised there would be an industry to have that career, I strongly believe that getting people connected gives them the tools to be all they can be and I speak from personal experience, I want to connect everyone and give people the power of the network. But that’s not just about technical skills and whilst having personal expertise on the technical side of our industry is helpful in a LINX context its no longer just what the LINX needs – I believe my technical background mixed with strong skills in commercial, strategy and organisational development is a valuable asset to LINX.
Three years ago I wrote “Our industry is entering a new phase of technological advancement and maturity, with ever more devices driving more and more for us to do. I look at this with fantastic excitement, with the hair standing on the back of my neck and the occasional tear in my eye when I see the difference our industry makes to our world. The LINX is a critical organisation and plays a huge part in changing the world for all of our end customers and users.” No more was this true than through the pandemic; our industry and LINX did an amazing job but there was a side effect – our industry’s development slowed down. Now the world is back and moving at pace and what has got the LINX to where it is today, in the value of its membership, and to grow and maintain that value together as a membership organisation we will need to think and act differently and think much more longer term; and continue to think how we drive more scale to give the membership more value for lower fees.
My biggest focus as a board member is to ensure the LINX is delivering value to all members and that value grows – the Internet Exchange point market is changing radically. More entrants, more and more organisations building out across the world and more competition for LINX across the markets we serve, and yes, even in the UK. This will drive the need for the LINX and all of us as the membership to think differently. We need to consider what we believe the exchange point industry and the industries it serves will look like five and ten years from now and start building and investing in the key capabilities in technical, organisational and partnerships to be ready to maximise the value we can take and share across the membership with all of this happening whilst more and more fibre and wireless infrastructure is being rolled out across the world, and more organisations leveraging the network in more and more mission critical and innovative ways.
My core focus at the LINX will be to ensure we enable the organisation with a clear strategy that puts the members first, that is the core purpose of the LINX board; and using my expertise in strategy, partnerships, technology, supply chain and organisation effectiveness to drive the LINX to be the most successful it can be, delivering more value for the membership with better and closer engagement and ensuring LINX stays close to its purpose in working for its members and working for the Internet whilst being a leader in commercial and innovation in the Internet Exchange marketplace.
You can contact me at neil.mcrae@bt.com for any questions you may have.
