Interview: Excel CEO Kevin Murphy

Despite that, after Kevin was offered the deputy chief executive role at the Royal Docks venue, he said yes without a second thought.

He said: "I took it because of the opportunity, the challenge. This business was just about to fall apart. It had cost £200million to put together and it was £200million in debt.

"My friends said: 'You're mad. You're doing well at Emap and have a final salary pension. Just enjoy it'.

"But I really thought London and the UK needed Excel."

After the last chaotic 15 months - which included a takeover by Middle Eastern billionaires, plans unveiled for mass expansion, and, last month, Excel being revealed as the centrepiece of a business tourism masterplan which could give London the financial boost needed to rise from economic gloom - he could well be right.

How Kevin, who was appointed chief executive of Excel last year, got here is an interesting tale in itself, and is not typical of most CEOs.

It began when he joined the Navy as a helicopter pilot in 1975, at the age of 23, serving in the armed forces for eight years, including three tours of Northern Ireland.

He said: "I have fabulous memories and life-long friends, but also lost some life-long friends through it.

"I've described it as like being in the sixth form with really good big toys to play with.

"Apart from the scary parts, like trying to land a helicopter on a ship in gale-force winds, it was good laughs with good guys."

After his son was born, and because of the extended time spent overseas, Kevin decided to leave the Navy. Stints as a pilot in the Middle East and flying to the oil rigs in the North Sea did not work out and left him in his 30s looking for a new career.

He got a job at media firm Morgan Grampian, which was eventually taken over by United Business Media.

At Morgan Grampian he became the youngest-ever publisher and managing director, before leaving to start his own successful magazine business, which was soon bought out.

He was headhunted by another publisher, AGB, where he was given the task of setting up an events business. By the time he left to join Robert Maxwell's business empire three years later, he had launched 48 events.

Working for Maxwell Business Communications turned out to be a rollercoaster.

He said: "When Maxwell went off his boat, obviously a lot of people lost money, including me. The whole group went into administration and PricewaterhouseCoopers came in.

"I raised private equity to buy the business. There were four of us putting in £12million each to raise nearly £50million, but we ended up getting out-bid by Emap."

Not all was lost, however, as the chairman of Emap offered Kevin a job as group managing director, where he went on to launch the company's successful conference business.

It was where he stayed until 2003, when he was again headhunted, this time by Excel. His decision to accept the job raised a few eyebrows, with the venue, built three years previously, already £200million in the red.

The first sign of an upturn was when the original investors took a hit by selling 75 per cent of the business for £26million to a Malaysian group.

The venue was then nearly turned into a shopping mall before it was decided it should push forward as a conference centre.

Kevin said: "One of the options was a big retail park and that would have worked, but for me that would have been a waste.

"I'm an events man, I know the industry and have organised shows for 20 years.
"We stayed as a conference centre and turned it around. We went from a loss of £15million a year to a profit of £26million."

However, the group needed investment to push on. Many events that were held at the Birmingham NEC but wanted to come to London were not able to use Excel due to its size.

Kevin said: "The Malaysians took a punt. It's down to the Malaysians that we survived but they were only ever interested in seeing a return for the money.

"They accepted we needed phase two to expand the venue and said if we could get it financed, and get the support from the industry to fill it, they would back it. But by the end of summer 2007 I knew the recession was coming.

"We had four banks we convinced to stump up the money at the beginning of summer, but by the end they had all withdrawn."

Kevin then set his mind to finding an equity partner to help fund the development, but it was not until June in 2008 that a saviour materialised.

He said: "I was at Le Mans for the racing and it was the Sunday morning. I remember it was Fathers' Day and I had just got off the phone to my dad. The phone rang again. It was Simon Horgan of ADNEC."

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) had spoken to Kevin about phase two and it was now, although on the cusp of a global economic crisis, that the group was ready to invest.

Not only would it fund phase two - which would increase the venue's capacity by 50 per cent - but it would buy the centre outright for £178m. It was at this point Kevin moved from deputy chief executive to the top role at Excel. Although boosted by phase two being in place, his work was far from over.

To really have a leading position in the world's conference and events sector Excel needed backing to become an international conference centre with an auditorium capable of hosting 3,000 to 5,000 people, thereby allowing it to hold the world's biggest conventions and conferences.

Those hopes had been dashed two years before by the London mayor at the time, Ken Livingstone, who, while admitting the need for such a facility in the capital, insisted it had to be in central London and not the east.

It was a decision that frustrated Kevin and the Excel group.

He said: "I don't think Ken Livingstone got it. He was under so much pressure from retailers in Oxford Street and Regent Street.

"They wanted it on the banks of the Thames, but really you need 15 acres of land. Where are you going to find that and how are you going to pay for it and then get the money to put it up? It would cost about £1billion for the land and another £150million to build."

Kevin was convinced Excel was the place for the auditorium but Livingstone remained adamant it should be central London.

In the end the Mayor's plans proved unworkable, so when Boris Johnston took over the hotseat Kevin wasted no time in putting his case to the new mayor.

Kevin said: "I was straight in there meeting Boris' advisors. Then we got Boris here for the start of construction of phase two. They listened."

Last month, the Mayor's office confirmed Excel would be backed for an auditorium, giving it the much sought-after status as an international conference centre, alongside the world's top centres. The flexible 5,000- seater auditorium would be part of Excel's phase two.

At the same time it was revealed that a Business Tourism Working Group would focus on boosting London as first-choice city of business tourism. It was a scheme very close to Kevin's heart.

He said: "When people look at where to host a conference they think London is too expensive, the hotels are expensive and there's not enough of them, and the transport is crowded.

"We don't push the other side enough. It's a global city, one of the top three in the world, a centre for financial markets, with 300 languages spoken here.

"But when you look at how places like Barcelona and Vienna do business, it's all done by teamwork. The conference centre owner, head of immigration, the hoteliers and the mayor sit around a table and tell the organiser what they can do for them, what discounts they can give. But for us it was just me sitting there trying to convince them to come to London. We're just not competitive."

It is hoped the new working group, containing London's hoteliers, transport providers and tourism chiefs, will change that and it's something Kevin is confident about.

As chairman of the Association of Event Venues, he is also convinced the new way of handling prospective clients will benefit the capital's other centres, from Earls Court to Billingsgate, and even sports venues which also host events, such as Arsenal and Chelsea football clubs.

If there is any doubting London can be a success by hosting huge events, you only need to look at the G20 in April this year. Over 5,000 members of the press, all the major world leaders and their huge entourages - the United States alone brought over 300 staff - attended the event at the Excel, which took place without any notable disruption.

Kevin said: "It was stressful leading up to it. You worry. You worry about security. But we had no issues at all. It ran smoothly. We've even got film footage of Barack Obama thanking Gordon Brown for the 'fabulous event'. Unfortunately we've never been given permission to release it."

The future remains promising for Excel despite the current financial meltdown. Profits are down this year and Kevin believes it could be worse in 2010 with conferences continually being held back. But next year, phase two will see 50 per cent more room for Excel, and the group is positive that the financial upturn will follow soon after. It is already taking new bookings for 2011 and 2012.