Following a very enjoyable and extremely eventful 2 years at a2e (including a secondment spell) and its group of investment companies, I have made the strategic decision to set up Mike Lee & Co to provide SME's a flexible and affordable interim or outsourced finance director service.As a problem-solving trouble shooter, my area of specialism will be to focus on cash hungry and troubled businesses - either distressed or fast growing - to help stabilse and mobilise them for sustainable future growth.

After 7 great years at Duff & Phelps and a successful secondment, I made the strategic decision to join A2E on a permanent basis.My primary responsibilities has been to grow the A2E portfolio of companies (combined turnover c£100m), to grow each of those businesses and, when the time was right, to realise value in those companies. I have so far added 3 companies to the portfolio.My notable experiences at A2E to date have included the following:A 7 month secondment (Dec 2014 and Jun 2015) as Finance Director of a £9m turnover precision engineering aerospace business in Northern Ireland. I was based onsite initially 3 days per week (early Mon - late Wed) which increased to 5 days during May/June in order to oversee a disposal of that business to a third party.On this secondment, I headed up an accounts team of 5 and set up crucial links to other departments such as production, purchasing, quality and sales. I also headed up "summit" teams to resolve account disputes with procurement director level staff at 3 major international aerospace manufacturing customers.In April 2016 (to date), I transferred to one of A2E's newly acquired investments, a distressed group of industrial heat exchange and air cooler manufacturers operating in the oil and gas sector (which included a new start-up business that I put onto the A2E books).Since joining as Group CFO, I have headed up a finance team comprising 5 staff members operating in 3 locations and set up links for the first time with the sales, commercial, production and quality functions in order to establish a flow of critical information and new systems and procedures.My notable successes here include unlocking c£300k of aged/disputed debtors within my first 2-6 weeks followed by key contract re-negotiations and dispute resolutions with major international customers and procurement directors level staff which allowed c £500k of customer payments to be accelerated.This group unfortunately remains a challenge!

At Duff & Phelps (Formerly, MCR & Menzies Corporate Restructuring), I was the "hands-on" team leader in the Business Consulting department (the firm's turnaround offering) in the Manchester office. I led a team of 3 dedicated chartered/certified accountants with access to the firm's wider pool of accountants when needed plus a number of support staff and reported directly to the senior partners of the firm. As a national resource, my team regularly linked in with the London, Birmingham and Leeds offices by pooling staff and sharing assignments, marketing duties and also expertise.My primary responsibilities included leading and working on larger assignments, regular new client visits and making the initial business assessment on each new prospect, assigning work to the team members and also reviewing their work to ensure a quality output. I would then present that output to key stakeholders which often comprised Banks, ABL lenders, company directors and investors. I also established and headed up the national "Tax Arrears Solution" team based on experience gained in my prior job to help SME and large corporates secure time to pay arrangements with HMRC.Given the outward-facing nature of the business consulting work, I was also an integral part of the marketing and lead generation teams. Consequently, I have presented at many technical and marketing seminars and contributed to the firm's website and e-blast campaigns as well as writing many of the firm's paper-based flyers, booklets, articles and brochures.As a result of the proximity of my work to the insolvency world, I have gained a thorough understanding of all insolvency based options and their implications hence I have developed a balanced approach in assessing company viability and strategy.

At LC Corporate Strategies (formerly part of the DTE Advisory Group and subsidiary of Leonard Curtis), I was one of the founding directors of LC Corporate Strategies which was established to provide a turnaround offering to sit alongside Leonard Curtis's formal insolvency and restructuring work. My team comprised my fellow director and 2 chartered/certified accountants and a number of support staff including the firm's marketing department.It was during my time here, that I played a major role in the Government's Department of Business, Innovation & Skills ("BIS") (formerly "The DTi") "Company Rescue" pilot scheme (implemented between 2001 and 2003) which was the forerunner to the Time to Pay ("TTP") system currently adopted by HMRC. Since then, I have personally agreed more than 500 TTPs with HMRC.My expertise in this field proved to be a major work winner and often formed the cornerstone of many turnaround strategies along with refinancing and fund raising.

At Mazars (formerly Mazars Neveille Russell) and, as a newly qualified accountant, I quickly gained a strong reputation for trouble shooting and making sense of badly put together accounts and incomplete records. Consequently, I was assigned many first time, new or problematic audits and also led several of the firm's larger audits which included the UK division of the Thompson CSF Group (a defence / aerospace organisation with global turnover of £5bn) and Seet plc (a prominent international clothing manufacturer).I also helped the Manchester office set up its Corporate Finance department and advised on its first few assignments which was when I first started to develop my forecasting skills. Since then, I guestimate that I have prepared/reviewed more than 1,000 sets of forecasts.

(Formerly Moores Rowland before the merger)