Biden switches back to business marketing role

Michael Biden, former sales and marketing director at BT Personal Communications, has quit consumer marketing and re-emerged as executive director of Hays, the business services group.

Biden, who is credited with restructuring BT’s consumer marketing operations and scrapping its Customer Communications Unit, was ousted in January (MW January 12) after falling foul of the managing director, Stafford Taylor. At the time, BT said the job was obsolete but three months later it promoted Mike Wagner to the slightly amended position of marketing and sales director (MW April 26).

Biden’s new role is a move away from consumer marketing back into general management, which he previously handled at Mars.

He will be responsible for the company’s distribution and logistics division in the UK, France and Germany. It is a business to business service group split into three divisions: recruitment and staff training, commercial services including document exchange, and the distribution and logistics division which Biden currently co-ordinates.

“It means going back into a general management role,” says Biden. “There is no functional marketing job, in fact there is no great marketing content; Hays is a business to business services company. My role is to ensure the business’ perform and grow organically or by acquisition.”

Biden replaces Michael Proffitt, who resigned earlier this month.