ACA- and BFP-qualified, with an MBA from London Business School, multilingual Kirk is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a former accountancy tutor, so he brings both outstanding credentials and clear subject-matter communication to his role at EFM.

With a proven track record of transforming systems, processes, and financial outcomes in everything from fast-moving innovation environments and start-ups to Government departments (Border Agency, Ministry of Justice, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), Kirk’s approach is characterised by simplifying the complex.

This is how he leads and manages projects but also how he communicates Finance successfully at different levels within the organisation, making it accessible and understandable to everyone from a Senior Justice on one hand, to a junior Finance team member on the other.

Kirk’s view of Finance is strategic, focusing on the “fascinating story the numbers tell about the health of the business, what it believes it is delivering, and what it is delivering.” His goal is always to use this insight to find a way forward through challenges and deliver real uplift in performance, tied to stretching but realistic key performance indicators (KPIs).

At the same time, Kirk doesn’t conform to the stereotype of the ‘typical accountant’, preferring to work approachable, collaboratively, and supportively – with a ‘hands-on’ attitude that drives both timeliness and results.

Kirk’s Finance experience over almost two decades is wide-ranging, and embraces several skills, sectors, and financial achievements that are indicative of the value he brings to EFM clients, including:

• Business transformation: Realigning Finance to strategic outcomes to increase a global agri-tech firm’s profits by 183%
• Efficiency improvement and cost savings: Implementation of Foreign & Commonwealth Office programme, releasing £4.5 million in cash and increasing frontline capacity by 53%
• Systems, migration, integration: merging 27 different Border Agency systems to deliver £12.2 million in annual savings
• Business turnaround: Changing systems, processes, and business approach to reverse a £2 million loss in an innovation company
• Business integration: Merging entities in a telco business to transition them to uniform systems, processes, and reporting standards, accelerate onboarding, reduce manual intervention, and eliminate duplication
• Communication and teambuilding: Articulating financial controls, their necessity, and their outcomes at all levels of the organisation, using simple language; developing Finance teams through consensus and collaboration    

1. Strategic planner
2. Analytical thinker
3. Collaborative team builder
4. Integrated Business Planning and Design
5. Stakeholder Engagement and Management
6. Inclusive Communicator
7. Creative Thinking
8. Change Management
9. Corporate Governance
10. Transformation enabler

• A multi-sector career spanning hospitality, insurance, telcos, innovation houses, and the public sector.
• Experienced in supporting start-ups and new projects.
• Proven ability to drive much-improved financial outcomes through business transformation.
• Skilled in delivering complex systems and integration projects.
• An approachable and transparent communicator at all levels of the business.

A fast-moving innovation house, nurturing exciting new start-ups, was struggling to make its activities pay and suffered a £2 million loss that threatened to make its business unsustainable.

The company brought in an Kirk to lead a transformation programme and daily operations, changing systems, processes, and business approach to completely reverse the loss and return the business to financial stability.

Kirk enjoys both springboard and platform diving, as well as well as spending time with his family and cooking. An advocate of holistic and regenerative farming, he cultivates both fruit and vegetables and has plans in the future to raise livestock.