Wales Advisory Forum

Established in 1991, the Wales Advisory Forum (WAF) was formed to assist BT Wales with the task of identifying and responding to the needs of BT's customers in Wales. The forum also provides the opportunity to discuss with prominent people in Wales other ways in which BT can contribute to Welsh communities.

The Wales Advisory Forum is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom bring their particular talents, skills and work experiences together for the benefit of BT Wales and the wider community.

Forum members include:

Dr Clive Grace
WAF Chair Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Local and Regional Governance, Cardiff University's Business School
Clive Grace is Chair of the Local Better Regulation Office, an NDPB which drives better regulation at local level across the UK. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff Business School and a member of the WAG Health and Social Services Corporate Governance Committee. He is also the chairman of Supporta plc, an AIM listed company providing services to the public and private sectors – they are the UK's 4th largest provider of domiciliary care. He is also Chair of the RCUK Shared Services Centre Ltd, one of the largest and most complex shared services projects in the UK public sector, and a Non-Executive Director of Nominet, the steward of dotUK, one of the world's largest and most respected internet domain name registries. He does extensive pro bono work with SOLACE and CIPFA, the two premier local government professional bodies, and is an Honorary Life Member of both.

Until 2005 Clive was the Director General of the Audit Commission in Wales and Deputy Auditor-General for Wales, and prior to that he was chief executive of Torfaen County Borough Council. He is a qualified lawyer, and has a Doctorate from the University of Oxford, a master's degree from the University of California, a bachelor's degree from the University of Birmingham, and a management qualification from the Open University.

Bill Murphy
WAF Member
Managing Director Next Generation Access, BT Retail
Before moving to BT Business, Bill was Chief Executive of BT in Ireland (spanning both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) and Managing Director, BT Regions (covering Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).  He has had a long career in BT but did spend a few years ‘on the outside’ up to early 2002, when he was CEO of e-peopleserve - a 50:50 joint venture between BT Group and Accenture.  That company has since been purchased by Accenture and now provides all of BT’s transactional HR services.  In all, he has spent 16 years in BT, mostly in sales and general management roles across the UK, Europe and North America. He started his career at ITT Worldcom in the US.  He now lives in London with his wife and two children and spends a lot of time visiting customers and his team around the country.

Jo Wright
WAF Member
Vice President, BT Global Services
Jo Wright heads the Global Sector Practice unit within IT and Professional Services. This unit employs a number of people with in depth experience of Government and Health markets who use their insight to develop replicable propositions with global potential. Jo Wright joined BT Syntegra in June 2004 as Managing Director of the Health Business Unit. Jo joined us with a distinguished track record. She spent 18 years with IBM, in a wide range of sales development and management roles, latterly with particular focus on the public sector (she was the IBM Government business Director in the late '90's) and high potential emerging business opportunities.  In 2001 she was approached by the UK government and offered the chance to become the first Director General for Criminal Justice IT - a new entity tasked to deliver technology to enable seven disparate agencies and three Departments of State to work together more efficiently and effectively. This role gave her first hand experience of the challenges of delivering front line public service reform from Whitehall, and insight into the real challenges of 'joining up' government services with 500,000 users - even with a multi billion pound IT budget.

Peter Davies
WAF Member
Consultant, Project Development Partnership
Peter Davies (Vice Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission in Wales) began his career in the education sector, initially as a teacher before being appointed Southern Area Director of the CBI Education Foundation. He was subsequently appointed by the DTI to set up the National Teacher Placement Service. It was here that he received an OBE in recognition of his work. In 1995 Peter joined Business in the Community UK as a Managing Director and latterly has been its Deputy Chief Executive. He led the organisation's campaigning role in improving the social and environmental impacts of business and established an international reputation for his work on corporate social responsibility. Peter returned home to Wales in 2005 and established the Project Development Partnership, a consultancy that provides project consultancy to business, government and the voluntary sector. Peter also co-ordinates the work of The Prince's Charities in Wales and is chair of the West Wales branch of The Institute of Welsh Affairs.