William Rogers - Chief Executive Officer
William Rogers became Chief Executive Officer of UKRD in 2002 after a very brief spell as Chief Operating Officer. An Insurance Broker by profession, he established his own broking firm in the south west of the UK in the 1980’s. His involvement with the radio sector started when he was invited to join the ultimately successful local group bidding for what is now Cornwall’s heritage commercial station, Pirate FM.
As Chief Executive Officer, he has overseen the transformation of UKRD into the country’s fourth largest commercial radio group (by licence number) more than doubling the group in size in 2009 when it won a contested hostile takeover bid for the publicly quoted radio group, The Local Radio Company plc. Within just two years of acquisition, The Local Radio Company was taken private and commercially transformed from a £2.5m annual loss making operation to one delivering operating profits in excess of £400,000. Since then, further acquisitions have been made as the group builds its portfolio of profitable assets, delivering improved profitability and cash flows and paying regular dividends to its shareholders.
Prior to full time executive radio management and insurance broking before that, William has previously held elected office as a councillor, leading his local authority for a period, been a Primary School Governor, Chairman of a Housing Society, Chairman of a College of Further Education, as well as holding various posts within the Conservative Party, contesting a seat in the 1997 Parliamentary Elections. He has also held office in a number of charitable organisations.
In 1990 he was awarded the MBE for Political and Public Service.
Andy Preece - Finance Director and Company Secretary
Andy joined UKRD in June 2008 as Group Financial Controller.
Prior to joining UKRD Andy worked predominantly in the manufacturing sector. In addition to traditional Financial Controller roles, previous roles include Business Systems controller for the European division of a US manufacturing company, managing the European roll out of new Finance systems.
Andy is an Associate of the ICAEW.
Outside of work Andy enjoys several outdoor sports including surfing, mountain biking and skiing, with a skill level best illustrated by the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”.
Phil Angel - Programme Director
UKRD’s Group Programme Director, Phil Angell, started his radio career in 1987 at LBC Radio in London before moving to Oxfordshire where in the 90’s he was both Programme Director and Breakfast Presenter at FOX FM.
In 1998, Phil moved to Cornwall to take up a similar position at Pirate FM and became UKRD’s Group Programme Director in 2000. Phil has a passion for animals and his Cornish cottage is littered with the detritus of 4 dogs, 6 cats and a parrot called Jack!
James Wenger - Chief Technology Officer
UKRD’s Chief Technology Officer fell into radio by accident relatively recently, having come from an internet and software development background, prior to which he spent more time than is sensible for anyone without sandals and a beard swanning around in Academia pretending to do clever things. James stopped protesting that he was not some kind of computer nerd when the rest of the Exec team started commenting on him never seeming to turn up to meetings without at least one computer and when someone else told him having four computers on his desk was “not normal”
As well as radio and computers, James also studies aikido and regularly heads over to Japan to be reminded that he is still only just learning this stuff.
