Kieran Smith Email & Phone Number

Stevenage, Gb

Together with Gwynne Lewis, Operations Director, I orchestrated an MBO where we bought Driver Require from EPIC Private Equity. We financed the deal with new funding from Chrysalis VCT.

Stevenage, Gb

Having moved on from Autocue Group Ltd, I was approached by EPIC Private Equity to run one of their latest acquisitions, Driver Require Ltd, a specialist driver recruitment firm based in Hertfordshire. The strategy was to rapidly grow the company through geographic expansion. I immediately set about implementing an aggressive growth plan, opening 3 new branches across the northern Home Counties in the first year. The timing was unfortunate and in mid 2008 the recession hit hard, reducing sales by 50% meaning that we had to cut back considerably. The growth initiative soon became a turn-around exercise as I downsized the company to a leaner operation than it had been at the time of acquisition. As part of the turn-around I decided it was necessary to reduce my involvement for a short period during the worst of the recession; accordingly in early 2009 I took on an additional role as CEO of Green Energy Plantations. I returned to my full time role as CEO in early 2010, re-activating the three new branches and driving a concerted business development programme. By the end of 2010 the company had returned to break-even. By 2012, despite still being in the midst of the recession, the company had exceeded pre-recession sales levels. Driver Require has since grown profitably at an average rate of over 35% per annum from 2012 to 2019, and is now one of the most successful specialist driving agencies in the country. In 2017 the company won two awards at the Hertfordshire Business Awards, in 2019 was listed at 29th position in the "Recruiter Fast 50" recruitment companies and also won an award at the Barclays biz4Biz awards. Most recently the company was listed in the "Recruiter Fast 50" list for the second year in a row.

I was approached by EPIC Private Equity and Root Capital to turn around Autocue Ltd, which had just been acquired from administration. One year later I had returned the company to a stable profitable position. By the end of the second year I had orchestrated the development and launch of a unique new product (QBox & QScript) that delivered sustainable competitive advantage and has been a fundamental driver of the continued commercial success of the company. At this point I was ready to hand over to my chosen successor and move on to new challenges. Thereafter Autocue regained its position as market leader in the prompting sector and became highly profitable. Consequently, in 2014, Autocue was acquired by Vitec Videocom, a division of Vitec Group plc, generating an excellent return for its shareholders and investors.

Perth, Western Australia, Au

I resigned from Gemini to co-found Norwood Systems, a hi-tech wireless telecoms start-up, together with an INSEAD classmate. The idea was to revolutionise the fixed-mobile convergence market for the enterprise sector. Our aim was to deliver a mobile solution with one number, one device and one bill that fixed-line telecoms operators could sell to enterprises, enabling them to compete effectively with the costly enterprise solutions being offered by the mobile telecoms providers.We wrote the business plan, secured £2M seed funding from 2 VCs and launched the company on New Year's Eve 2000. During the next five years we successfully closed three rounds of funding totalling £12.5 million from Venture Capital investors including Deutsche Bank and Cazenove Private Equity. In this time we grew the company to a 50-person organisation with a global sales network.I was accountable for all operational functions including driving the business development and sales efforts. I oversaw and drove the conception, design, development, beta trial and commercialisation of the core product.Ultimately we developed a commercially viable prototype that was successfully tested and was being seriously considered for commercial roll-out by BT. However Vodafone persuaded BT to change its strategy which effectively postponed the implementation of our product to the point that we ran out of cash before the commercial product could be launched.

Za

I was headhunted by Gemini to work in their Information Management Discipline as a Supply Chain and Logistics SAP system specialist on a project in Geneva. During this time I was also a key contributor to the development of the Cap Gemini Group Concurrent Transformation service offering.Following a sabbatical to study an MBA at INSEAD, I returned to Gemini Consulting to work for the Strategy Discipline, where I delivered numerous strategy formulation assignments across various industry sectors; I also developed the Cap Gemini Group Electronic Commerce service offering.I then returned to my specialist area of Supply Chain and Logistics Management, and was soon promoted to the position of Managing Consultant in the Operations Discipline, leading project teams to deliver large-scale change management and systems implementation projects in the steel production industry & at a major Scandinavian oil company.In 1999 I teamed up with an INSEAD classmate to launch a wireless telecoms start-up. We managed to raise seed funding on New Year's Eve 2000, at which point I resigned to take on the role of VP of Operations of this new venture, Norwood Systems Ltd.

I was selected to join a multinational project team based in The Netherlands to develop an SAP solution for Mobil Oil's European operations. I became a supply chain and logistics expert and was subsequently drafted into a pan-European change management project based in the UK, led by Gemini Consulting.When the design phase was concluded I joined implementation projects as the SAP supply chain & inventory management expert, initially in Paris then Hamburg, Vienna and Athens. Upon successful conclusion of the Greek project I was headhunted by Gemini Consulting to assist them with one of their first SAP implementation projects based in Geneva, at which point I resigned from Mobil.

I started out as a Junior Buyer, buying garage and service station equipment for the Retail Division. I was then promoted to buy chemicals for Coryton Refinery and the Birkenhead blending plant. I was interested in leveraging IT to increase the efficiency of our purchasing processes and expressed an interest in joining a team set up to implement SAP throughout the Mobil operations in Europe. I was then selected to join this team and transferred from MOCL to Mobil Europe Ltd.

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business Administration And Management, General

Master Of Engineering (M.Eng.) Distinction, Chemical Engineering

Common Entrance 15 O Levels And 4 A Levels