Duncan Painter - Experian's rising star aims high

In March Painter was appointed UK managing director of Experian Integrated Marketing, a new entity blending the firm's prospect targeting, bureau and data cleaning business Intact with ClarityBlue.

In the meantime Painter has led Experian's winning pitch for the contract to build a voter contact database for the Labour Party. Presenting to the Party's top brass, and fending off competition from six other suppliers, Painter was in his element.

But Painter is pausing briefly to absorb news that arch rival Acxiom has accepted a buyout offer from two US private equity firms (see news, page 4), a deal that will increase the pressure on Acxiom to improve the poor performance of its European businesses. "Inevitably they'll get distracted by this," Painter muses.

Nonetheless, Painter admits the creation of Experian Integrated Marketing, involving the loss of 100 jobs across Experian's London and Nottingham offices and ClarityBlue's Bristol and Luton hubs, is a huge preoccupation. He is also busy ensuring that Experian, the firm famous for building the mailing databases that helped launch nine out of ten US credit card firms in the UK in the 1990s, does not get left behind in the digital revolution.

"We're called Experian Integrated Marketing," he says. "Our aim is to bring intelligence-led marketing offline or online - whereby clients can mount campaigns via mail, email, door drops, web banners and search to acquire customers and retain them." He says that Experian's recent acquisition of website traffic measurement company HitWise "brings a lot of expertise in online marketing and search", adding that there are also home- grown digital developments in the pipeline.

Painter's promotion coincided with the resignation of David Coupe, the high-profile former managing director of Experian Marketing Services International. Like it or not, Painter looks set to become the public face of Experian's UK marketing business as Chris Savage, who heads Experian's other data companies including QAS, remains determinedly below the publicity radar.

But if Painter is to assume Coupe's mantle, where will he find the time? Coupe will carry on representing Experian on the direct marketing industry stage for a year but after that it's anyone's guess. "Our clients come first and that's never going to change," Painter says, adding that 70 per cent of his working week is spent liaising with clients.

Though he once trained to be a lawyer at night, while working at Dixons Group in the early 1990s, Painter's style is more shoot-from-the-hip than circumspect legal suit. "He's one tough negotiator," says a data seller who recalls the days at ClarityBlue when Painter would haggle down the price of data on behalf of clients such as Lloyds TSB.

Despite his progress through the very corporate echelons of Experian, Painter remains refreshingly opinionated. He believes that ClarityBlue's work for large financial services companies has had more impact than dunnhumby had on Tesco. "Is Tesco's success all down to Clubcard and use of data? It's been pretty instrumental but that story has been stretched a bit," he says.

His wealth aside, at the age of 37 Painter feels justified in working full-time. "Yes, I am rich, but people have to do something during the day and I genuinely love what I do." It's intriguing to think that Painter, who reports to the managing director of Experian UK, Tiku Patel, is likely to be wealthier than several of his Experian superiors.

Not one to flaunt his riches, Painter and his wife live in the same house they bought 14 years ago. With two children, and another on the way, Painter says his rugby-playing days are truly over.

So will paternity leave lure him away from corporate life? "Of course," he says. "I have a great management team under me. It's not a one-man show."

PAINTER'S CHALLENGES
- To complete the creation of Experian Integrated Marketing
- To balance Experian's offline strengths with new online services