Not a consultant. A practitioner.
Forty years across four continents. Two decades serving on boards in an advisory capacity. Fifteen years working in the UAE. Global sales, hundred-million-pound turnarounds, post-merger integrations, leveraged buyouts and private equity plays — all of it from doing it, not reading about it.
My background is computer science — from mainframes to quantum computing. I held senior roles at Siemens, CapGemini and CSC, and led post-merger integration at Getronics, before spending most of my career inside operating businesses rather than advising them from the outside.
I have designed and built things that solve problems and define new capabilities — an inflight cabin management system for commercial airlines, and a regulated fintech savings platform that became the UK market leader.
I have raised over $75m for my own ventures. I have run large P&L, led turnarounds, integrated businesses after acquisition, and worked through leveraged buyouts and private equity plays with owners who wanted their return and wanted it now.
More to the point: I have sat in the seat. And I have been on the receiving end — handed a set of numbers I did not build and asked to defend them in a room where nobody was on my side, with impatient investors watching the clock. That experience shapes everything on this site more than the job titles do.
Why the book exists
Across all of it, the same pattern kept appearing. Businesses that looked fine on paper were quietly slowing down. Delays had been normalised. Inefficiency had been built into the model, the numbers and the culture until nobody questioned it. The machine that converts customer intent into cleared cash was getting heavier every year — and nobody was measuring it, because no function owns it.
Every organisation blamed sales. Almost none of them had a sales problem.
The Slow Bleed is the book I wish someone had handed me forty years ago. It is deliberately a field guide rather than a business book: tools, templates and action plans meant to be used on a Tuesday morning against real numbers, not admired on a shelf.
What I'm good at
Making complex things simple. Getting to the actual problem quickly and saying it plainly, including to people who would rather I didn't. Being useful in a room where everyone is being careful.
I am at my best live — on a stage, in a boardroom, or on a call with a CEO who needs somewhere honest to think out loud.
The rest of it
Based between Cornwall and Dubai, where I have worked for the past fifteen years and know the regulatory structures, the free zones and the ministries. Married for thirty-eight years, four children — all entrepreneurs who left the corporate world and built businesses of their own across different industries and geographies. Working alongside them is one of the things I am most proud of.
I chair the Family Office Summits in the UAE, have addressed faculties at Harvard and MIT, and have published over 300 articles.
Corporate
Senior roles at Siemens, CapGemini and CSC, and post-merger integration at Getronics. Global sales leadership, large P&L, restructuring and private equity plays.
Ventures
Ten start-ups. Over $75m raised. Products built in commercial aviation and regulated fintech, including a UK market-leading savings platform.
Boards and investors
Two decades serving on boards in an advisory capacity. Solarix Ventures. GLG Council member for fifteen years. Commercial due diligence and market entry across the UK and the Middle East.