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Multi-sector CFO and Finance Director with a strategic focus and strong communication skills
Trained as an accountant with PWC (FCA) and went on to develop a diverse career in finance and financial management across sectors such as professional services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotech, and hospitality. Adrian is known for his hands-on, practical approach to finance, helping non-specialists understand key concepts like pricing, cash flow, working capital, inventory, and business planning.
He values clear communication and prefers to explain complex financial topics in simple terms, often using concise bullet points and inviting questions. With experience working in linguistically diverse teams, Adrian has refined his ability to convey ideas effectively. His strategic financial focus combines commercial goals with resource allocation, cash flow forecasts, and process improvements to not only strengthen but also transform business performance.
Adrian Campbell has built a wide-ranging Finance and financial management career across sectors as diverse as professional services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotech, and hospitality, in organisations at all stages of business growth.
This FCA-qualified CFO and FD, with a background in science and engineering, is highly analytical, but also has a proven track record of robustly driving transformation across business models, systems, reporting, and team structures.
Hands-on and pragmatic, with a knack for helping non-specialists understand Finance fundamentals, business plans, and their importance to the business, Adrian has developed an approach that keeps communication simple, giving a high-level view in five bullet points or fewer, and actively encouraging questions.
This jargon-free doctrine has also stood Adrian in good stead for his international work with linguistically and culturally diverse teams from Europe and Asia and has enabled him to create effective Finance training to upskill and develop teams and help them perform more productively.
But Adrian is also resolutely focused on optimising commercial and financial outcomes. His primary goal is always to understand the business and its vision in depth, and then align key Finance controls and activities – resource allocation, cash flow forecasts, systems and process improvements – to deliver better.
Adrian’s varied career has seen him gain significant experience across many areas that will enable him, as an outsourced Finance Director, to deliver real value to EFM’s clients. Just a few examples of these from his career include:
An international biotech innovator was eyeing growth and expansion in Europe but needed an effective Finance strategy that would both maximise reach and optimise return.
Adrian worked with the business’s commercial specialists to create a financial strategy that would fund and drive new product launches and new country entries, resulting in a 69% top-line growth in company revenue.
A sports devotee, Adrian loves watching (and earlier in his career loved playing) football, rugby, and table tennis, and he is also a practitioner of the Shotokan style of karate.
Walking his dog and listening to music helps him unwind, and as a former hospitality industry -finance manager, he enjoys socialising in pubs now and again!