The Stirling Whisky Company provides advice across the whole supply chain of Scotch Whisky including:- sourcing liquid and casks;- managing maturation policies;- product design;- bottling and storage;- routes to market;- regulatory requirements.With hands on experience in every aspect of the processes in house coupled with extensive connections across the industry the Stirling Whisky Company is uniquely placed to develop your journey in Scotch Whisky.

Dalriada Capital provided specialist corporate finance advice. Areas of specialism included restructuring debt, equity raising, exit strategies and tax mitigation.

Steri Systems is a specialist provider of decontamination services to the hospital and healthcare sectors.

Nucleus is an online wrap-based platform, launched in 2006 by a group of seven financial adviser firms (including myself) who set out to create a wrap platform with a difference.The retail financial services sector was being controlled by product providers and fund manufacturers with the adviser’s role becoming more and more marginalised. However, the reality is that it is the advisers that are the ones who are closest to the client – attracting the client, defining their needs and creating a solution.The seven founding firms realised that something needed to change. We created a new model, putting the adviser and client at the heart of the process, focusing on a client-aligned approach rather than a product-led one, and developed a platform that was committed to transparency and banishing complexity.We effectively handed control of the platform to the advisers using it. Nucleus in effect, works for these advisers to develop the platform to meet their needs. This means that these advisers are free to develop tailored solutions for their clients, and have greater control over their investment strategy and their business.I was appointed to the main board at Nucleus Financial to represent the interests of the IFA community. As a member of the Audit and Risk Committee I had specific responsibilities to consider all risk and compliance matters including compliance with regulatory capital rules.

The IFA Advisory Board was established to ensure that the IFA users of the Nucleus Wrap continues to have a significant voice over the direction and development of the Nucleus platform. Firms are elected to serve on the board by the wider IFA shareholder community.It acts as a conduit between the Executive Management Team at Nucleus and NIFAC influencing both development and shareholder issues.

As Chairman of NIFAC I had responsibilities to the wider IFA firms that were using the Nucleus Wrap platform to ensure that their respective shareholdings in the Nucleus Financial Group were protected. In 2009/10, as Chairman, I led an IFA team to a successful negotiation with Sanlam to protect the IFA majority share ownership of Nucleus in respect of the £15 million capital injection (Rights Issue) required to meet changes in regulatory capital rules.Subsequently, and in order to meet IFA obligations under the terms of the Rights Issue, my responsibility lay with raising capital through a sale of Nucleus Shares to shareholding IFA's ensuring compliance with financial promotion rules. In consort with my fellow directors, I steered the Company through the significant threats posed by the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review while at all times protecting the interests of the IFA shareholders.