Twenty years
of the
real thing.

Started at PwC Strategy, doing PE due diligence. The job: figure out whether a business is worth buying. Form a view fast, defend it under pressure, move on.

The range was genuinely absurd: cinema chains, sports cars, A4 paper, PVC window frames, retail, care homes. You stop being precious about sectors quickly.

Then proper jobs. Over a decade at Sainsbury’s and Argos in senior general management. P&Ls up to £3bn, teams of 200-plus.

Interim CCO at McColls through the Morrisons acquisition. Currently SVP Product & eCommerce at Future PLC, a FTSE 250 media and eCommerce business, on the Exco reporting to the CEO.

The coaching and strategy work runs alongside all of that. I’m not a former executive who left the building to consult. I’m still doing the job. Which means when I’m in the room with your leadership team, I know what it’s like to sit in your seat.

Strategy, in practice

The examples that have actually mattered:

• Sainsbury’s GM & Clothing. Built and landed the strategy with the leadership team. Consistent growth over four years, the kind that compounds rather than spikes.
• Argos post-integration. Reset the growth flywheel with the board after the Sainsbury’s acquisition. The merger had consumed the room. We got profitable growth back on track.
• Sainsbury’s Convenience through COVID. City centre stores in freefall, neighbourhood stores with a tailwind. Two different problems in the same P&L, managed simultaneously. Optimised growth where it was there, managed the decline where it wasn’t.
• Argos Ireland, during Brexit. Digitally transformed the business while the market was busy managing disruption. Back-to-back 20% growth years.
• McColls. Reset the digital strategy as interim CCO. Quadrupled profit in under twelve months.
• Future PLC. Delivered strategy and transformation creating over £30m of value.

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On coaching

I’ve been coached since 2020 and qualified as an executive coach the same year. It changed how I work, visibly and quickly, and I think that kind of thinking should be available on its merits rather than whose budget it lands in.

I coach senior leaders and ambitious people on the things that actually move a career: thinking strategically, getting through a leadership transition, landing change that sticks, working out the next move when the current one has run its course. No fixed price. Pay what you think a session was worth.

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Former NED at the Association of Convenience Stores and finance committee chair at Citizens Advice Dacorum. I’ve seen governance from both sides of the table.

The coaching and strategy work isn’t a side hustle. It’s the part that gives energy back.

See my full profile on LinkedIn →