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• Spearheaded customer acquisition and business development, delivering sales strategy and execution. I quickly built up a client base of 120 companies in the first 4 years. • Clients included a leading UK Challenger Bank, games software developers, automotive manufacturers, a major UK food manufacturer, as well as various up-and-coming SME fintechs. • Developed a multi-faceted approach and strategy to business development and sales linked to marketing. This approach delivered a highly effective and cost-efficient means to engage companies, build relationships, maintain reputation, and secure sales, regularly winning work from ‘Big 4’ and middle-tier accountancy firms.• Built a highly effective cross-functional delivery team and culture to work in a collaborative approach to R&D tax claim preparation. My recruitment brought in former colleagues from my KPMG days, as well as technologists from different industries. I remained ‘hands-on’ for the delivery work and technical report writing.• Set up a strong review framework to meticulously scrutinise every report and claim deliverable before these could be presented to the client. Each team member, regardless of seniority, actively contributed to the review process without any hierarchy, fostering a more collaborative work environment. This approach not only enhanced awareness and knowledge-sharing, but also elevated the overall quality of our work. I founded LinkStep as a premium R&D tax consultancy to help SMEs that were struggling to raise R&D funding and engage with HMRC in an affordable way. My goal was to create a level of service quality that could surpass ‘Tier 1’ accountancy firms, which was achieved. In the closing stages of the 12th year of the business (December 2023), I recognised that changes both in legislation and in the modus operandi at HMRC would impact our business model going forward. As a result, it was decided to close the company.

• Expanded customer portfolio from 150 companies to 300+, resulting in increased sales revenue with minimal growth to delivery team.• Implemented internal training resulting in transformed delivery team operations and improved technical team knowledge of legislation. • Led significant project to partner, partnering with a software developer in constructing a comprehensive CRM system for the entire company. • Developed a new support and training network for various accounting firms nationwide that did not previously exist. This in turn formed a major business development network and the main source of sales leads. This role was a notable milestone in my leadership development, as I was now directing a much larger operation and team of people. I was tasked with leading considerable business change, to deliver the means to scale up the business and create a far greater quality of professional services. This work included the creation of new business processes and protocols, work on company strategy, change management, sales strategy development, technical training to internal and external stakeholders, company management and reporting to the board of directors.

• First step into large corporation business development activities, yielding considerable success in numerous tender processes.• Worked on of some of the largest R&D claims in the UK – including claims for F1 racing, UK banks, quantitative hedge funds, insurance, early fintech, supermarkets and retail, and a large power utility company.• Focus was on software claims mainly for large businesses. • Led training and technical support across KPMG’s regional UK teams and wider business network.• HMRC defence work involving intense written and verbal negotiations. I was part of KPMG’s first-generation cross-functional R&D tax team. My main responsibilities included supporting the accountancy function, in terms of R&D claim preparation and assessment, technical interviews, and technical report writing.

• Technical manager of both the customer support team and the business consultancy team, whilst also providing technical support for business development.• Managing an international technical support team.• Providing leadership in the development of new company strategies, resulting in a significant recruitment drive, team restructuring and new consultancy services.• Reported directly to the CEO. Questionmark remains a leading online assessment and e-learning software platform. My role was client-facing and initially focused on 3rd line support, but this soon expanded into my first leadership role to become a technical manager of both the customer support team and the business consultancy team. My work included dealing with escalations, consultancy projects, and feedback between clients and the R&D team for feature development, improvements and bug fixes.

External client-focused role within e-learning software house. 3rd line role responsibilities included: managing escalated customer technical issues, supporting sales with customer consultations for designing technical requirements/integrations/customisations, and managing release issues from development. The role acted as an issue gateway, managing relationships between the development steering team and the client facing side of the company. The consultancy role involved producing the specifications and implementation plans for bespoke enhancements, configuration, installation, integration, tailored training and customisation projects.

Working in the R&D team, I was a key part of the design and testing of photo kiosk and photo lab print systems, acting as an interdisciplinary liaison between the business and the sub-contracted software developer.

Rolling up my sleeves and attempting to do some programming - Embedded Systems development on early VoIP systems, cutting edge R&D at the time.