Orange UK brand chief to take retail responsibility

Orange UK brand marketing director Justin Billingsley is tipped to get a beefed-up role in a restructure being spearheaded by new chief executive Tom Alexander.

Sources claim Billingsley will be handed responsibility for the retail side of the business on top of his brand duties – the first time a senior marketer at the company has had such a wide remit.

They claim the move would be “hugely significant” for the brand as Billingsley’s predecessor Pippa Dunn was not in charge of retail.

It is thought that former Virgin Mobile chief Alexander, who joined Orange at the start of this year, wants the marketing department to be more integrated.

It is not clear what the proposed changes mean for Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, who is vice-president of Orange’s mobile and convergence business units. Billingsley currently reports to Van Overbeke, who replaced Alexis Dormandy as the company’s most senior marketer in the UK at the start of 2006 (MW January 19, 2006).

An Orange spokesman denies speculation Van Overbeke will move to parent France Telecom. The spokesman adds that he is an “integral part of the UK board” and “very much part of the long-term plans” for the UK business.

Billingsley was brought in to fill the brand marketing director role last summer (MW July 5, 2007). Dunn was promoted to run the mobile operator’s pay-as-you-go business at the end of 2006.

Billingsley, a former Nokia, Coca-Cola and Unilever marketer, said at the end of last year that he was planning to overhaul Orange’s marketing strategy to get its “voice” back (MW December 13, 2007).