Born and raised in Newcastle, I’m married to Emma with two boys, James and Daniel.I follow pretty much any sport, supporting Newcastle United, Newcastle Falcons and the San Francisco 49’ers. I help out coaching James’ rugby team at Northern FC and Daniel’s football team at Team Gosforth FC.I’m a Chartered Accountant (Fellow of the Institute) and have spent 20 plus years working in corporate finance leading predominantly North East based transactions involving SMEs and covering disposals, management buy outs (and buy ins), equity/mezzanine/debt finance raising exercises and acquisitions.I’ve worked for Price Waterhouse (one of the big 4 global accountancy firms), UNW (a leading North East independent accountancy firm), Quantum Corporate Finance (at the time, the only independent corporate finance house in the North East) and I set up and ran my own firm, Irving Ramsay Limited, for 12 years.Over the past couple of years I’ve gradually reduced the amount of Corporate Finance work I do as I’ve become more involved in retained adviser/Non Executive Director/part time Finance Director roles. I really enjoy this type of work, getting to know businesses and making a contribution at a depth that I never could when I was purely transaction focused.I thrive on the role of trusted adviser, doing everything I can to help the business owners I work with achieve their personal goals all the way from the strategic to the day-to-day ups and inevitable downs of owning and operating a business.