Professional Building Contractors, specialists in Cat A & Cat B Fitouts, Refurbishments, Offices, Restaurants, Hotels, Bars.

Applying sector expertise, contacts and business knowledge to secure contracts. ■ Consultant for Hestt since 2017 involving design and marketing of roll in & pop up counter systems for the contract catering, hospitality and coffee market.

Managing Director for Vanilla Concrete between 2016-2017, Designing & delivering work for key clients such as Booking.com, Belmond, Xenia Lounge and Sanotri Ribena Lucozade.

I established this business alongside Oxbow Media in order to sell products designed by Oxbow to different channels. Outside the corporate staff food service market that Oxbow specialised in, Tastemodern secured business in Hotels, Events and Stadiums. Clients included Chelsea Football Club, Chester Zoo, Grey Goose, Twinings, Viking River Cruises & Westfield Shopping Centre.

Recognised the potential of this loss making business in 1996, purchased it for a nominal fee, inherited the debts and transformed it into a profitable organisation within 18 months, ultimately achieving a multi million turnover. Key steps to turning this business around included: ■ Developed the business initially from a pre-press operation into a multi disciplined design agency, which offered graphic, web to complete interior design, build and installation service for clients, specialising in interiors for the contract catering and corporate sector. ■ Kept costs down by setting up an internal photographic studio, printing and lamination division ■ Hired the best talent in the industry including a regular base of 50+ expert suppliers. This enabled us to deliver a high quality service across all areas of our work including;- 3d visuals, full interior plans, signage, estimates and delivery ■ Developed a strong industry reputation and won contracts with more than 200 clients including Compass Group, ASDA, Bank of England, BA, BT, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, John Lewis, O2, Olympics, Sky, Sodexo and United Biscuits amongst many other household names ■ Embraced new technology and innovation to keep us ahead of the competition. This included creating a live work flow software system to handle more than 80 live projects at any one time and a new intranet system which reduced the order processing time from 8+ mins to under a minute. ■ Alongside this, I also recognised an opportunity to manage clients’ Google Adwords accounts and managed multi million spend on behalf of clients, successfully raising their profile within their own sector Key to this success was managing client relationships, understanding their business and developing deep industry knowledge which also included best use of materials and as the business progressed, we increased our use of recycled materials. Pioneers within our sector we were also proud sponsors of the first TedX in Brighton.

In collaboration with the Bethwaite family, we developed the new racing dinghy for the 2000 Olympic Games, which became known as the 49er. With oversight of the conceptual idea, set up global distribution and funding for this ambitious project. A resounding success, proudly this dinghy is still the fastest two man production dinghy in the world.

I had 49% ownership of this business and developed it to become a market leader in the disposable glove market. Distributing 40,000,000 gloves internationally at any one time and outselling Johnson & Johnson in the uk dental market within 5 years – key steps to achieving this were: ■ Developed and managed supplier relationships in Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China enabling us to offer high quality products and innovate within this sector ■ Won and retained business with major clients in the medical, dental, pharmaceutical, automotive, cosmetic and food production industries including Bupa Hospitals, Claudius Ash, Healthco, NHS, Estée Lauder, Birdseye Foods, Landrover and GSK ■ Positioned and priced our products in the high quality category to reflect our brand, standards and service which led to an increase in business from all sectors, overtaking our main competitor ■ Set up distribution partners in Europe and Canada to expand our market ■ Introduced highly advanced state-of-the art stock management and ordering systems to efficiently and accurately manage the timely ordering and distribution of large volumes of stock due to the long lead times on supply.

I started my career straight after leaving school, successfully managing to blend my creative nature with an entrepreneurial spirit! Business owned and roles fulfilled from aged 18-24 included: ■ Yacht Mast Designer for John Powell Yacht Masts (1983-1987). This was a great job for an 18 year old who loved sailing! Here, I worked throughout Europe, on exciting projects such as the J class yacht Shamrock V, Admirals Cup, Tall ships including the STA Lord Nelson and liaised with the leading names in the yachting world. ■ Director & Owner of a Windsurfing Centre in Bognor Regis (1983-1986). In addition to working as a Yacht Master Designer, I also owned 30% of this Windsurfing business. Initially trading from a portacabin in a car park! We progressed to owning a shop with flat premises within 3 years. ■ Area Salesman for Electronic Business Machines. (1987-1989). Joining an established business, I completed sales training, hit the ground running and was rapidly promoted. Relationships made and retained in this role paved the way for future business at Oxbow Media. ■ Director & Owner of Impact Group. (1989-1991). I set up a business which distributed retail packs of listing paper, computer disks and other computer consumable products and sold them to WHSmith, ASDA, Ryman’s and 100’s of independent retailers in the UK.