Mike Harris

Mike Harris is a leading entrepreneur, who was the founding CEO of First Direct and Egg Banking PLC as well as being co-founder of Garlik. Mike has also been in senior positions at several other international companies and is also an author, having published Find Your Lightbulb. Available to hire as a speaker, Mike brings a wealth of experience making him perfect for any business audience. He aims to inspire businesses to transform, challenge and innovate within the sector they operate and provides organisations with useful advice and tips to do just that.

He started his career at Midland Bank (now HSBC) before working for Space-Time Systems. He returned to Midland in 1988 and became founding CEO of First Direct, the world’s first major telephone bank. In 1991 he became the Chief Executive of Mercury Communications. In his time in charge, Mercury’s annual turnover grew from £1billion to £1.6billion. He was also Chairman of One 2 One, a mobile phone company that was sold to NTL in 2000. In 1995 he was the founding CEO of Prudential Banking Plc, which became Egg three years later. As CEO of Egg, he saw it grow to a value of £1billion in the first three years, before he left his position in 2001 to become a Vice-Chairman of the Board. In 2005 he became co-founder and Chairman of Garlik. He has also been the Chair of Innovation at the Royal Bank of Scotland and a regular speaker at MIT, discussing leadership, strategy and innovation as well as winning the BT Flagship Award for Innovation.

In 2007 he published Find Your Lightbulb, a book focused on innovation and entrepreneurship. The ideas in the book became the focus of Find Your Lightbulb Ltd which he co-founded in 2009. Through the company, he has developed the structured management programme Iconic Shift, which has been used by organisations from several sectors such as law, business, veterinary health, food, fashion, FinTech, pharmaceuticals and education. He co-founded Monument Partners in 2012, an advisory firm focussing on investment in the global FinTech space. He has also been a Non-Executive Chairman at Medivet The Vets, KYND, Dashly and Monolith.

His vast experience at the top of several organisations across a number of different sectors makes Mike Harris the ideal choice for a business speaker. Delivering a wealth of tips and techniques to use in both a personal and professional aspect as well as encouraging audiences to challenge limitations and focus on customer experience.