HELEN
WYLDE
You’ve got a very varied background, most recently, with Lumo Trains. What shaped your career to be where you are today? I spent much of my early career in telecommunications, five years at Vodafone and three years at 02. Most of my background is technology, marketing and sales, customer services, CRM systems, things like that. I was lucky enough to be at the start of what was the digital revolution, and
8 | BUSINESS CORNWALL
it was fabulous. I learned so much from some really clever people. And what I found was that I had a skill as a marketeer and a salesperson, so it was basically about transformation. I tend to focus on things that either need repair, or they’re really new ideas that need to be brought out of their shell. So, I’ve done some really interesting projects. Lumo is a good example, where First Group asked me to set up and launch a new electrified train company on the East Coast, and the first sustainable railway in the UK. We did that during lockdown. That’s a pretty typical Helen type of project - let’s be a challenger brand, let’s do this differently, let’s be the people’s choice. What I tend to do is look at that whole customer champion piece, new technologies, fresh thinking. That’s what I like doing, because it’s bringing people together.
You like a challenge? I love a challenge. And nowadays I don’t do fix-its, I only do builds, which is a career choice because it’s a really positive thing to do. You get to a stage in your career when you want to put something back in. It gives me the opportunity to create jobs and create opportunities so that all our stakeholders, whether it’s colleagues, customers, partners, suppliers or shareholders, love what we do and see the value that we create for everyone. Which is what you are doing now at Wildanet. How long has Wildanet been going? The business was founded in 2017 and at
