Non-Executive Director · Strategic Growth Partner
You built something that works. Now it has to scale.
I work with founder-led businesses in manufacturing, professional services and environmental sectors — helping leadership teams scale faster, structure smarter and build lasting equity value.
Does this sound familiar?
Most of the leaders I work with arrive saying one of these things.
“Growth still feels like a series of one-off battles.”
You win good projects, but nothing compounds. Every sale starts from zero.
“The strategy is clear, but execution is fragmented.”
Departments work hard, just not together. It is rarely a capability problem. It is an alignment problem.
“I've become the bottleneck.”
You review every major deal and approve every significant decision. Your team waits. Growth slows.
“We're expanding abroad and the partner isn't performing.”
Often the problem is not the partner. It is the sequence — a partner was chosen before the customer was understood.
If one of those is your business, the conversation is probably worth having.
How I help
01
Non-Executive Direction
A seat at your board that brings challenge, perspective and pattern recognition. A sounding board for the decisions you cannot take to your team, and a challenge function when one is needed.
02
Scaling and operating rhythm
Turning a three-year vision into quarterly milestones, weekly disciplines and metrics with a name against every number — so strategy becomes something your whole team can act on, not a document they were shown once.
03
Route to market and partnerships
Designing the right mix of direct sales and channel partners, building joint business plans that partners genuinely value, and unlocking the growth already sitting inside your existing distributor network.
04
International expansion, M&A and exit
UK and European market entry, acquisitions and divestitures, and identifying the value drivers that matter when you are preparing for investment or exit. Fluent German and French, with experience across Europe and North America.
Track record
£7.2m → £13.3m
Kinetico UK, in three years
The commercial division grew more than fivefold, accelerated by a £3m acquisition that added national service capability and two major hospitality accounts.
EBITDA doubled
Sentinel, as Global CEO
A strategic turnaround built on a refocused sales model and diversification across products and international markets.
Predictable Sales
Deb Group
Instinct replaced with a competency framework and activity metrics — improving hiring, training and forecasting alike.
A career built across a leading multinational — JohnsonDiversey — and three CEO roles in mid-size SMEs. Today, Non-Executive Director and adviser to businesses in the UK, Europe and North America.
How I work
My job is not to arrive with all the answers. It is to create the conditions where your leadership team finds their own.
I start by listening.
One-to-one conversations with every board member and executive leader before I offer any strategic input. I need to understand your context, your pressures and your ambitions before I have earned the right to advise.
I ask rather than impose.
"What have you considered?" "What would success look like?" "What is the risk if you do nothing?" Those questions are more powerful than any template I could bring.
I empower, then step back.
The Managing Director runs the business, not me. My role is to be a trusted sounding board, a source of experience and a challenge function when needed. The decisions and the results belong to your team.
“The feedback I value most came from a leadership team who said I made them feel empowered and trusted. That is the standard I hold myself to.”
Insights
I write regularly on LinkedIn about growth, route to market and the realities of scaling an SME.
Am I the bottleneck? A CEO's checklist.
How founder-CEOs unintentionally slow the business down, and the small steps back that create the biggest steps forward.
Read on LinkedIn →A distributor stocks 10,000 SKUs. Their typical customer buys 8.
Why the biggest growth opportunity usually sits inside your existing channel, and what it takes to unlock it.
Read on LinkedIn →I nearly talked myself out of a £3m acquisition.
What the deal taught me about conviction, diligence and the value an acquisition can add when the strategic fit is right.
Read on LinkedIn →
Start a conversation
Not every business that wants a Non-Executive Director actually needs one. A first conversation is simply about finding out whether I can help — and where I would just be in the way.
Three questions I usually ask
- 1What is the biggest opportunity you are not pursuing — and why?
- 2What is the last decision you or your management team made that you are not sure about?
- 3What would success look like in 12 months — and what would failure look like?
No agenda and no obligation. If it is not a fit, I will say so.
Book a 30-minute conversation