James’s 30-year career in Finance Director (FD) and consultant FD roles, across multiple sectors, has equipped him with an extensive understanding of the pain points of start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – as well as a determination to resolve them in order to drive growth and enable scale-up.For James, this is not just about what he does, but where, how, and with whom he does it. Highly commercial, pragmatic, and hands-on, he is as at home building, training, and supervising operational teams as he is engaging strategically with the Board and external stakeholders to forecast, secure funding, and deliver major transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Data is at the heart of James’s approach. He sees the Finance discipline as the custodian of the business’s data, making sense of everything that could positively or negatively influence the business’s financial position. In this way, he moves Finance away from a ‘compliance-only’ model to a more proactive commitment, with insight and opportunity built in.

And his ability both to engage with complex tasks and roll up his sleeves when needed means he’s as likely, on a day-to-day basis, to be turning cash flow around through improved invoicing practices, factoring, and credit control, as he is to be fighting a client’s quarter with HMRC.

CIMA-qualified, with a degree in Economics from the University of Manchester, James has amassed a wealth of professional experience in, amongst others:

• Business turnaround and stabilisation:  Working with a property portfolio to reorganise and refinance the business, in order to stabilise it and get it to a point where it needed only part-time financial support to achieve growth.

• Real-time business performance reporting: Working with a small investment company to create live, web-based data and reporting insights, communicated to stakeholders at all levels across the business, and fully aligned to business objectives.
   
• Finance team restructuring: Working at the heart of a Finance team to restructure it, tighten role and responsibility definitions for clearer outputs and outcomes, and focus support where it made most commercial sense.
   
• M&A and commercial integration: Managing all aspects of a merger in a staffing business, supporting the update of the stock exchange listing, integrating newly acquired subsidiary companies (systems, reporting, employees, stock options), and closely managing cash flow and treasury.
   
• Technical change management: Implementation of an ERP system, including the introduction of a multicurrency environment, digital authorisation, and data analysis functionality.
   
• Planning and strategy: In businesses across multiple sectors - including independent funding bodies, property portfolios, staffing companies, publishers, and others – developing plans to support long-term cashflow, business strategy, annual reports, growth and expansion projects, and more.

1. Strategic planning
2. Financial modelling and restructuring
3. Change management
4. Data strategy
5. Software integration and systems implementation
6. Team management
7. Business process improvement
8. Financial coaching and training
9. Project management

• Real estate
• Investment management
• Recruitment
• Professional services
• Media

Energetic in life as in work, James keeps active by skiing and cycling, but he also enjoys putting his communication skills to good use socialising with friends and newcomers in a traditional pub.

His love of film, literature, and history feeds his creative streak – as it has done since he was at school – and the flexibility of his role at EFM enables him to achieve an optimal work-life balance.