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Experience & Credentials

Executive leadership experience. Commercial judgement. Professional mentoring standards.

My work as a strategic business mentor is informed by more than 30 years in senior commercial and executive roles, including establishing and leading businesses, developing commercial operations, managing funding relationships and making decisions with direct consequences for business performance.

I have worked with organisations ranging from owner-managed businesses to substantial corporate groups, both as an executive carrying responsibility for results and as an adviser supporting others in making significant decisions.

This combination of first-hand leadership experience and professionally qualified mentoring underpins my work with founders, CEOs and senior leadership teams through Kinetic Mentoring™.

Executive Leadership and Business Building

My career includes appointments as Managing Director, Commercial Director, Chief Commercial Officer and senior executive within banking, commercial finance and professional services.

At IGF Group, I served as Commercial Director before establishing and leading IGF Asset Finance and IGF Commercial Finance as Managing Director. These businesses operated within a private-equity-backed group, requiring commercial development, team leadership, funding arrangements and operational accountability.

At Vantis plc, I served as a Client Partner and as Managing Director established Vantis Asset Finance and Vantis Commercial Finance, developing specialist funding capabilities within the wider professional services group.

Following an MBO from Vantis I was also a founding partner at FRP Advisory, where I helped establish and develop a commercial finance brokerage. Combined across these businesses I arranged more than £250 million in funding.

Other executive appointments have included Managing Director of STA International, Sales and Marketing Director at Partnership Invoice Finance, and Chief Commercial Officer at ABM.

Across these roles, my responsibilities extended beyond commercial strategy to business development, leadership, organisational performance, stakeholder relationships and the practical challenges of turning plans into results.

Having held executive responsibility, I recognise the distinction between identifying an attractive strategy and being accountable for delivering it.

Corporate Banking, Funding and Commercial Finance

My early career at NatWest included senior business and corporate banking appointments, establishing corporate banking centres, managing lending operations and working with businesses across a broad range of sectors and sizes.

This provided a grounding in commercial risk, financial performance, credit assessment and the relationship between funding decisions and business strategy.

My subsequent career in specialist commercial finance involved developing funding businesses, leading commercial operations, negotiating funding arrangements and supporting businesses with growth, working capital and complex financing requirements.

That experience includes:

Establishing and developing specialist commercial finance businesses and funding operations.
Responsibility for substantial lending and commercial decisions, including personal invoice finance underwriting authority of up to £1 million.
Experience across organisations and operations involved in financing more than £750 million of invoices.
Developing commercial relationships with banks, alternative lenders, investors and business owners.
Working through funding constraints, business restructuring and the financial implications of growth and acquisition.
Following the completion of a hostile takeover of an AIM-listed competitor, integrating IT, operations and sales across multiple sites.

My experience provides an understanding of how commercial decisions appear from both sides of the table: to the people responsible for leading a business and to those assessing its financial risk.

Entrepreneurial, Acquisition and Strategic Experience

Alongside my executive appointments, I have been directly involved in establishing, acquiring and developing businesses, including acquisition negotiations, transactions involving distressed businesses and the commercial challenges of integrating operations.

These experiences have reinforced the importance of disciplined judgement, particularly where commercial opportunity, financial exposure, leadership capability and execution risk intersect.

Business decisions rarely sit neatly within a single discipline. An acquisition may appear financially attractive but introduce significant integration or leadership risks. Growth may create pressure on working capital, management capacity or the founder's own role.

Understanding those relationships is an important part of the perspective I bring to mentoring and strategic discussions.

Strategic Mentoring and Leadership Facilitation

Through Kinetic Mentoring™ (a trading style of Kinetic Business Advice established in 2011), I work with founders, CEOs and business owners on the decisions and leadership challenges that shape the direction and performance of their businesses.

My work includes ongoing one-to-one strategic mentoring, leadership team discussions, facilitated strategy sessions and focused advisory assignments.

Common areas of focus include:

Strategic direction, growth and commercial performance.
Leadership effectiveness, senior team development and accountability.
Founder dependency, delegation and the transition from operational leadership to a more strategic role.
Acquisitions, funding decisions and organisational change.
Succession, ownership considerations and preparation for the next stage of business development.
Converting strategic decisions into clear priorities, ownership and measurable execution.

I also facilitate confidential peer forums and provide mentoring within Business Leader, working with ambitious founders and business leaders on the commercial and leadership challenges they face.

My wider mentoring experience includes national business growth and leadership development programmes, including Help to Grow: Management, together with work supporting emerging businesses and experienced executives.

Across these settings, my role is to introduce informed challenge, help clarify decisions and support leaders in taking responsibility for effective execution.

Strategy and Leadership Assignments

Not every business needs an ongoing mentoring relationship. Some require focused external perspective at a particular point in their development.

I also undertake structured strategy and leadership assignments, including executive strategy days, leadership team facilitation and focused sessions addressing significant business decisions.

These engagements may involve reviewing strategic priorities, testing growth plans, examining organisational capability, strengthening leadership alignment or establishing clearer accountability for delivery.

The value lies in bringing an independent perspective, experienced commercial judgement and a disciplined process to discussions that are often difficult to resolve from within the business.

The aim is not simply to produce a strategy document, but to establish clearer decisions, shared understanding and practical commitment to action.

Professional Qualifications and Recognition

My executive experience is complemented by formal mentoring qualifications, professional recognition and ongoing development.

ILM Level 7 qualification in Executive Mentoring and Coaching.
Fellow of the Association of Business Mentors (FABM).
Fellow of the Institute of Leadership (FIoL).
Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI).
Member of the City and Guilds Institute (MCGI).
Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs.
Freeman of the City of London.

My mentoring practice incorporates professional supervision, continuing professional development, confidentiality and recognised ethical standards.

These disciplines matter. Executive experience provides commercial perspective, but effective mentoring also requires the ability to listen, challenge appropriately, respect professional boundaries and ensure that clients retain ownership of their decisions.

Experience Applied to Your Business

The value of experience is not simply what someone has done in the past, but how effectively that experience can be applied to the decisions facing you today.

Whether you are leading an established owner-managed business, developing a more capable senior leadership team, considering a significant strategic change or preparing for the next stage of growth, my role is to provide informed, independent challenge.

I bring the perspective of someone who has held executive responsibility, combined with the structure, discipline and professional standards of an experienced business mentor.

Clarity. Momentum. Results.

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Professional Qualifications .Masters in Executive Mentoring and Coaching