About
I have always been interested in why something isn’t working, and what would genuinely make it better.
My career grew through business, finance, technology, leadership and strategy. I built my experience in places where advice had real consequences for people’s companies, income, staff and lives, and that has never left me.
A good plan has to work in real life.
I grew up in a northern mining community and saw early what happens when work disappears and people’s choices narrow. Money was not an abstract subject in our house. It shaped what felt possible.
Education opened a different route. I became the first person in my family to go to university, followed it with a master’s degree in management consultancy, and discovered I was fascinated by the way businesses, money and systems fit together.
That took me to London, into commercial and operational roles, and eventually into building and leading my own business. It also taught me that professional knowledge does not make anyone immune from difficult periods. Good strategy has to account for the person delivering it and the life happening around them.
That is why I look beyond a set of figures or an impressive plan. I want to understand what is really happening, what matters to the people involved and what would make the situation genuinely better.
Experience at a glance
- More than 20 years of commercial experience across sales, marketing, operations, finance, process change, leadership and strategy
- More than 15 years owning, leading and advising businesses
- Former owner and CEO of an accountancy practice
- MSc Management Consultancy, Leeds Beckett University
- BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology, Sheffield Hallam University
- Certified Business Strategist and Certified Financial Coach Practitioner
- Twelve years as a school governor and current charity trustee
- Experienced speaker, trainer and facilitator
How I think
Curious first, confident second
I notice patterns and inconsistencies. I can hold the big picture and the detail together, and I am prepared to challenge an accepted answer when the evidence points somewhere else. I bring my own analysis and judgement to your situation, while staying open to being wrong.
I also explain my reasoning as I go. You should finish our work better able to read similar situations yourself, not more dependent on me.
What I’m building now
A wider body of work, on purpose
Alongside client work, I am developing my writing, video, speaking and training. The threads are deliberate: better business decisions, the human side of strategy, audiences and value, and why human judgement matters more when AI can produce a convincing answer in seconds.
It is an expansion of what I already do, not a change of direction. You can follow it in Ideas & Work.
I have been the buyer, too
Over the years I have spent many thousands of pounds on coaches, strategists, programmes and masterminds. Some were worth every penny. Some gave me a community I needed. Some were not what had been sold, and some were simply the wrong thing at the wrong time. I have also joined things hoping that being in the room might somehow make the work happen for me. It did not.
That experience shapes how I work now. I want us to be clear about the problem, what I will provide and what you will need to do. I would rather start with a useful, contained piece of work than sell you months of support before either of us knows whether it is right.
And outside the work
I live near Skipton in North Yorkshire, share my days with two Spanish Water Dogs, and value plain speaking, equality and the sort of community that turns up for each other.
I am also slightly obsessed with stories. I have listened to thousands of audiobooks, so at this point I do more than follow the plot. I notice when a performance helps a character come alive, when a change of viewpoint becomes difficult to follow, and when the writing and narration make the listener work harder than they should. I write and talk about that too.
You can also find me on LinkedIn, where I share what I am learning, questioning and working on.
Besides being great with numbers, Jo genuinely cares about businesses and customers. She’s incredibly commercially astute and a brilliant team player. I would highly recommend Jo.