Why I left London and moved to Yorkshire to tackle digital exclusion as new boss of Quickline: Mark Bowden
Imagine a life without the internet. Growing up on a farm in rural Shropshire, that wasn’t something I had to imagine – it was just life. It felt like we were always a decade behind everyone else when it came to technology.
When the internet finally arrived, it came with the familiar soundtrack many rural readers will remember well – the whirring dial-up tone, followed by the spinning wheel of doom.
Access to the online world was slow, unreliable, and something you learned not to depend on.
So, when I tell people I spent most of my career in London at places like O2 and giffgaff, they often assume I left that experience behind.
The truth is, it never left me.
I’ve always carried with me an understanding of what digital exclusion really feels like, and the frustration that comes with living at the wrong end of the postcode lottery.
That’s why, when the opportunity came up earlier this year to join a small, relatively unknown alternative network provider in East Yorkshire, I didn’t see it as a step away from big names or big city prestige. I saw it as a step towards something that mattered.
Some people were surprised that I chose to leave London – the 24/7 city where everything is at your fingertips – for a business headquartered on the outskirts of Hull.
But for me, it was an easy decision.
I like a challenge, and I could immediately see the potential of Quickline – a business with Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in its DNA, built by people who understand the communities we serve because they live in them.
Today, we employ more than 450 people, most from this region, and they are, without question, some of the most committed, grounded and genuine people I’ve met in my career.
When I first moved up, I stayed in Beverley.
Every morning, out running before work, I was struck by something simple but significant – people said good morning!
After years in London, that level of warmth and humility stopped me in my tracks, and it reminded me that these are the very people we exist to serve.
Very quickly, I realised that the heartbeat of Quickline as a proud Yorkshire-based company isn’t its technology – it’s its people.
It’s the engineers knocking on customers’ doors, changing the way they connect with the world. It’s the voices in our contact centres, the teams behind our billing systems, the HR colleagues finding brilliant local talent.
Every one of them plays a part in the customer experience.
We talk a lot about customer obsession at Quickline, and it’s not just a slogan for a wall.
It means putting the customer at the centre of every decision – every new process, every improvement, every conversation.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not just connecting homes to broadband.
We’re connecting people to opportunity, to education, to healthcare, to family, and to the wider world.
That’s why I came to Yorkshire. And that’s why I’m proud to be here.
Mark Bowden is CEO of Quickline Communications