When Stephen Carter was appointed to run Ofcom, the media industry's first super-regulator, there was little sound coming from the chattering classes - their jaws had universally dropped.

At the time of his appointment, Carter was an unemployed 38-year-old whose last job was presiding over the bankruptcy protection proceedings of NTL, the cable company crushed by £12bn of debt

Tim Suter, Ofcom partner in charge of content and standards, says one of Carter's strengths is "restlessness" which "can be tiring for the rest of us".

Such hard work has produced the blizzard of consultation documents and reports that characterised Ofcom's first year. It is also necessary if the regulator is to fulfil its challenge to tackle big industry issues: public service broadcasting, digital switchover and telecommunication pricing, to name a few.

A former colleague at NTL, who declined to be named, says Carter always preferred negotiating with industry stars rather than talking to junior members of the troubled company. "He likes talking to bigwigs like ministers, senior civil servants and industry chiefs, rather than operational staff."

Carter's seeming regard for industry bosses is mutual. Media executives like his light-touch regulation and the sense that he was not so long ago one of them.