Michael Grabiner, who was last night appointed non-executive director of Telewest, the cable-to-telecoms group, joined the Post Office after leaving university in 1973.
He worked his way up the newly formed British Telecommunications to become director of BT Europe in 1994. He also became a member of the board of BT Telecomunicaciones SA in Spain, VIAG InterKom in Germany, Telenordia in Sweden and Albacom in Italy.
He was chief executive of Energis from 1997 to 2001. He then became a director of Apax Partners, the leading buyout firm, in 2002, before being appointed chairman of Spectrum Strategy Consultants in 2003.
The former Cambridge Student Union president had earlier hinted at a future political career when he became a Labour councillor in Brent, North London, in the early 1980s.
Mr Grabiner, who is married with four children, devotes much of his spare time to his role as chairman of the Jewish Film Festival and is the treasurer of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain.