Practical leadership for creative growth
Strategic finance and transformation services
Managing an agency is a balancing act between creative output and commercial discipline. I provide the strategic oversight and steady hand needed to professionalise your finance function without losing your studio’s soul.
Ongoing partnership
Fractional CFO and commercial operations leadership
Senior finance leadership for agencies that have outgrown gut-feel decision-making
Scaling a creative business requires a move from reactive accounting to proactive commercial leadership. I step in to professionalise the finance function and act as a strategic partner to the leadership team.
I bring the discipline and cadence needed to manage complexity and support sustainable growth.
Key deliverables:
Strengthen pricing, client profitability and delivery economics to protect operating margins.
Establish a working capital rhythm that improves visibility and control (including WIP and receivables).
Implement decision-grade management reporting and a leadership rhythm that drives action (not just information).
Build capability in finance and operations, and provide confident stakeholder management across founders, senior leaders and PE audiences.
Value creation
Performance and value transformation programmes
Identifying margin accretive opportunities and building a practical growth roadmap
When a business is ready to step up performance, the fastest route is often through targeted value creation, strengthening the commercial engine, improving delivery economics, and developing higher-value services and revenue streams.
I lead structured programmes that identify where value can be created, prioritise the opportunities, and turn them into an executable plan with clear ownership and measures.
Key deliverables:
A clear, evidence-led view of the most attractive margin accretive opportunities across the commercial and operating model.
A prioritised plan to build and scale services and revenue streams, with sequencing, owners and measures of success.
The operating rhythm, reporting and accountability required to execute and track impact.
Hands-on leadership to implement changes across finance, operations and commercial teams so initiatives land and sustain.
ERP enablement
Data strategy and ERP systems enablement
Moving from fragmented spreadsheets to a single trusted source of truth
Fragmented data is a major bottleneck for scaling agencies. I provide the strategic leadership needed to align your finance and operations data, often acting as the lead for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Business Intelligence (BI) implementations.
I ensure your systems provide actionable intelligence rather than just a collection of vanity metrics, and that reporting is trusted, consistent and adopted by the business.
Key deliverables:
Define the outcomes the business needs and the “golden metrics” framework (KPIs, definitions and dimensions) to support decision-making.
Translate leadership needs into clear functional requirements, reporting use-cases, data requirements and programme scope.
Create RFPs, evaluate options, and support vendor/partner selection to ensure the solution fits the business and operating model.
Provide advisory support through design, data mapping, testing, controls and go-live readiness, ensuring adoption and usability.
Establish ownership, controls and data governance to reduce manual spreadsheet risk and improve confidence in reporting.
Reporting reset
Financial governance and management reporting resets
Providing commercial clarity for better visibility across the business
Finance often feels like a black box to creative leaders. I lead management reporting resets that create clear, shared visibility of what’s happening in the business, focused on decisions and accountability, not reporting for the sake of it.
I translate complex data into a coherent narrative that empowers the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead with greater certainty.
Key deliverables:
Redesign monthly packs around the few metrics that drive performance, with clear definitions and actions.
Strengthen controls, ownership and month-end cadence so numbers are trusted and timely.
Coach creative and operational leads on how to use reporting to manage their areas (not just receive it).
A staged plan that improves reporting now and builds toward automation over time.
Deal support
Exit readiness, financing & M&A deal support (including carve-outs)
Preparing the business for transaction scrutiny
Preparing for a company sale, refinance, or Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) process is a high-stakes undertaking. I provide the commercial discipline and diligence-grade metrics required to protect your valuation and ensure the equity story stands up to investigation.
Whether you are a Private Equity-backed (PE-backed) agency or a founder-owned studio looking to finance, I act as the unflappable lead throughout the transaction.
Key deliverables:
Build a tight evidence base of KPIs and supporting analysis, with clear definitions and defensible assumptions.
Shape separation plans and key considerations for divestments (TSA, stranded costs, readiness).
Turn performance into a credible growth narrative backed by proof points.
Coordinate financial Q&A during diligence, keeping responses consistent and controlled.
What to expect
Focused on decisions, not documents
Reporting and finance processes are built to drive actions, ownership and outcomes.
Flexible delivery
Remote-first with in-person time for key milestones, workshops and leadership alignment.
Works with your team
I can lead, mentor or strengthen existing finance/ops capability, without disrupting delivery.
Clear scope
Outcomes, responsibilities and cadence agreed upfront so it’s easy to run alongside BAU.
Confidential by default
Discreet, professional and used to investor and PE environments.
What to expect
Focused on decisions, not documents
Reporting and finance processes are built to drive actions, ownership and outcomes.
Flexible delivery
Remote-first with in-person time for key milestones, workshops and leadership alignment.
Works with your team
I can lead, mentor or strengthen existing finance/ops capability, without disrupting delivery.
Clear scope
Outcomes, responsibilities and cadence agreed upfront so it’s easy to run alongside BAU.
Confidential by default
Discreet, professional and used to investor and PE environments.
FAQs
Qualified by Experience. I’ve led finance end-to-end (P&L, balance sheet, controls, audit and specialist teams). Qualified accountants have been part of my teams to ensure technical rigour.
Accountants typically focus on compliance, statutory accounts and tax. A fractional CFO focuses on performance and decision-making i.e margin, cash, forecasting, reporting cadence, target operating models and commercial discipline.
Yes. I typically lead and mentor the team, but I’m also hands-on where needed, shaping and producing outputs like cashflow forecasts, planning models, management packs and decision-ready analysis.
Typically, ongoing BAU fractional leadership, targeted transformation/value creation programmes, and financing/transaction support (including carve-outs and M&A).
Both. I am based in London which makes it easy for London based work. Remote works well for wider UK & international firms as well as for oversight and reporting cadence; in-person time is useful for key workshops, leadership alignment and implementation moments.
My core background is in creative/marketing services, but my work has broadened into people-based services — including professional services and facilities services. My clients range from founder-led, 10-person agencies at £1m+ turnover looking to stabilise and grow, through to multi-nationals with £2.5bn+ turnover. I work hands-on with lean teams, and at scale I lead the cadence, governance and stakeholder rhythm.
Yes. Discretion is standard and in some cases I’m under NDA, so I can’t publicly reference the work or the client.
That’s common. A short note on your objective (e.g., “reporting isn’t trusted”, “cash is tight”, “we’re preparing for financing/M&A”) is enough to start — whether you’re thinking in terms of cadence (“one day a week / once a month”) or a specific workstream (“reporting reset”, “value creation programme”, “deal preparation”). Or simply email to say you’d like to bounce a few ideas.
