Neil McArthur MBE FREng

CEO and Founder, Freedom Fibre Ltd; Chair and Co-founder, Hamilton Davies Trust

Neil McArthur, who started his career as an engineering apprentice, is one of the UK's most successful engineering entrepreneurs. Most notably he founded Opal Telecom, which was acquired by Carphone Warehouse and then became TalkTalk, the UK's largest unbundled broadband network. After running TalkTalk's technology division, he became CEO of FibreNation, which was sold to CityFibre, and in 2021 he co-founded Freedom Fibre.

Neil is a passionate advocate of engineering entrepreneurship in the Greater Manchester area, through his positions at the University of Manchester, the Manchester Business Angels and the Manchester Tech Trust, and as an angel investor.