Charles McKay

Charles McKay has a proven track record in helping large and small businesses, as well as not-for-profit organisations, to change and grow. He has experience in financial and commercial management, strategy formulation and execution, cost reduction, business development, fund raising, acquisitions, disposals, governance and change management.

Team-oriented, reliable and results-focused, with the ability to manage by influence.

Charles is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He started his career working for Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PwC) in London working in financial services, litigation and people development. He moved into industry with Exel plc and quickly became a divisional Finance Director overseeing a business with turnover in excess of £250m. Following an international merger of that business, he spent 2 years working on a major change management programme to assist the integration of those companies across the world, before leaving to start working with new ventures. For the last 21 years, Charles has been involved in digital technology, communications and not-for-profit companies from start-up status to maturing companies that require different skills and processes to continue to progress. He has been involved in numerous corporate transactions including acquisitions, disposals, fund raising and taking a company onto the AIM market.

Over the course of his career, he has:

• Start-up companies – been involved with and set up a number of companies during the last 21 years, raised over £80m in equity and debt including taking companies onto the AIM and junior markets
• Financial management – changed the reporting style, reduced unnecessary tasks and time for reporting, introduced and run new accounting systems, and managed the structure of working capital to maximise cashflow.
• Acquisitions and disposals – identified and executed a number of acquisitions and disposals during the course of the last 20 years including the negotiation and delivery of those transactions.
• Strategy formulation  – established the strategic roadmaps to focus performance, identified product and service lines that provide value or should be disposed of.
• Cost Reduction– undertaken numerous cost reduction exercises in both multi-national and small start-up companies.
• Corporate Governance – introduced processes and procedures to address dysfunctional boards and management teams, meet the requirements of moving onto equity markets, and achieved ISO accreditation.

Testimonial:

“Without Charles Wildanet could not have happened and without his clear vision excellent commercial and strategic skills and his calming leadership we couldn’t have made it to our scaling phase. A natural leader and team player with outstanding intelligence, experience and skill. He is a pleasure to work with”

Helen Wylde- Chief Executive Officer

Background

The largest investor in the business wished to exit their position and various potential suitors had been approached to acquire the business. However, this failed at the last minute with the new suitor wishing to change the deal terms.

Challenge

The challenge here was to find a buyer in as short a period of time as possible as the change in terms resulted in the company entering administration due to lack of funds.