Consulting and speaking engagements across AI deployment, M&A, manufacturing, and marketing — drawn from seventeen years operating, acquiring, and integrating businesses in the mid-market. Enquiries welcome.
Practical adoption of AI inside operating businesses, including the design and rollout of private, in-house large language models. Engagements typically focus on identifying high-value use cases across operations, sales, and support, and translating them into measurable cost savings and efficiency gains.
A practitioner's view on translating ambitious, multi-year objectives — an acquisition programme, a new market entry, an operational turnaround — into structured workstreams, milestones, and accountability. Project execution without the project-management theatre.
Nine completed transactions — four acquisitions, four divestitures, and one sale-leaseback — providing perspective on origination, diligence, SPA and APA negotiation, and the post-close integration work that ultimately determines return. Sessions are tailored to operators, investors, or advisors, and to the stage of the deal in question.
Scaling a founder-led business into a credible mid-market platform: where to invest ahead of the curve, where to hold, and the operating decisions that compound over a decade. Drawn from building a manufacturing group from the ground up to nine-figure revenue.
Group architecture for owner-operated and acquisitive businesses: where value should sit, how to structure for cross-border operations and tax efficiency, and the unglamorous decisions that make subsequent integration and exit straightforward.
Modern B2B, B2C and B2BC™ marketing in an AI-first search landscape. How to make a brand, its products, and its expertise genuinely discoverable and citable inside the major AI platforms (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity), and what that means for the structure and priorities of an in-house marketing function.
On family as a unifying entity, the long arc from London market stalls to Operio, and the unglamorous work of integrating acquisitions while protecting culture.
The logic behind Operio — why unifying machinery and ingredients under one roof ends the finger-pointing — and a candid walkthrough of the "digestion phase" after three acquisitions in a year.
A longer-form conversation on entrepreneurship, adversity, and building through the unfinished middle.
A deeper conversation on the operator's life — ventures, family, and what carries through.
A curated four — rotated as new conversations come along.
Limited bandwidth, high commitment when I take something on. Typical remits: M&A strategy and deal support; post-merger integration; marketing and brand for industrial businesses; in-house AI and LLM work.
Open to any board position where the fit is right. Particular interest in mid-market ($25M–$500M) manufacturing and industrial businesses pursuing inorganic growth.
Rates on request. Please enquire and I'll come back quickly.