Business Growth Fund

Our team

A separate Management Board led by the Chief Executive, supported by executive directors, has overall accountability for investment and operational decisions.

There is a wide role for non-executive directors and representatives of business organisations. BGF will provide an annual shareholder review.

It was announced on 18 February 2011 that Sir Nigel Rudd would become the first Chairman of BGF with Stephen Welton as Chief Executive.

Sir Nigel Rudd, Chairman
Sir Nigel Rudd is best known as founder, in 1982, of Williams plc, which went on to become one of the largest industrial holding companies in the United Kingdom until its demerger in November 2000, creating Chubb plc and Kidde plc. He became Non-Executive Chairman of Kidde plc until December 2003. Sir Nigel was knighted in 1996 for services to manufacturing. He has a long record as an active angel investor in small and medium size businesses. He has been Chairman of some of the largest companies in the UK, including Pilkington, Alliance Boots and the UK’s largest car retailer, Pendragon plc, the company he founded with one dealership in 1982. He was a Director of Barclays PLC for 13 years, latterly as Deputy Chairman. He is presently Chairman of BAA Limited and the technology company, Invensys plc.  Sir Nigel has been a long term advocate of the need for a fund of this kind.

Stephen Welton, Chief Executive
Stephen Welton has over 20 years of experience in the private equity industry. He joined BGF after 10 years with CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners) a global private equity firm. Stephen was a Founder Partner and member of the investment committee. He has extensive experience as an investor working with private companies, most recently as Chairman of Edwards, the global engineering group headquartered in the UK. Before this, he was Chairman and CEO of TV Travel Shop prior to its successful sale to a global media group. He also has 10 years of UK private equity and growth capital experience as Managing Director of Barclays Private Equity and at Henderson Ventures, which he co-founded. He started his career in banking, has a law degree from Durham University and is a qualified Barrister-at-Law. Stephen became Chief Executive of Business Growth Fund in 2011.

Richard Bishop, Head of Investments
Richard Bishop joined BGF in June and is responsible for the delivery of the investment strategy.  He is based in Birmingham but works nationally through the regional Directors.  He also works on a national level with BGF’s external partners.

Richard previously spent 21 years at 3i.  He ran its Birmingham Office prior to becoming a founding partner of 3i’s global Growth Capital business.  He was responsible for the Global Growth Capital portfolio, and sat on the Board of four businesses where he made the original investments.  He has a Banking and Finance degree from Birmingham University.

Malcolm Brookes, Chief Operating Officer
Malcolm is seconded from HSBC, having joined BGF in October 2010 as Chief Operating Officer. His initial responsibilities included the establishment of operational processes such as finance, IT and premises. Malcolm was a founding member of the executive management board and has ensured that a robust business model is in place both at company launch and beyond.

At HSBC Malcolm was CFO, UK Commercial Banking. He joined the Bank in 1974 and has worked mainly in the leasing and asset finance subsidiary of the Bank, having held a number of finance roles in addition to Finance and Operations Director of Fiat Finance Ltd, a joint venture with Fiat International and head of Group Audit, FTG. Since 2000 Malcolm has worked in commercial banking and was appointed to the CFO role in 2003. 

Paul Oldham, Regional Director, South West England and Wales
Paul’s main role is to lead BGF’s investment team in South West England and Wales and to identify and successfully execute investments.  He will also sit on the board of some of BGF’s investee companies.  He supports the investment teams in other regions as required.

Paul has 22 years’ private equity and investment banking experience and has completed over 40 equity investments.  He spent 13 years at 3i and was Director of 3i’s Cardiff and Bristol offices.  Paul then joined Grant Thornton as South West Corporate Finance Partner, and in 2008 he joined private equity firm LDC to establish and head up the new Bristol office.

He is married with two children and has a First Class Degree in Economics & Accounting from Sheffield University.

Marion Bernard, Regional Director, London and the South East
Marion is responsible for leading investment across her region and will be supporting BGF-backed companies as a board member.  She also sits on BGF’s national investment committee.  Marion has 18 years’ experience of funding small and medium sized companies across the UK, including ten years based in London.  She joined BGF directly from Northstar, where as Chief Executive Officer she led the successful development of this pre-eminent regional fund management business, focused on making long-term equity based investments in SMEs across the North East and Yorkshire markets.  At Northstar, Marion had overall responsibility for over 50 equity investments across a range of sectors including technology, media, healthcare and cleantech.  Prior to Northstar, Marion gained both banking and venture capital experience with Barclays and 3i in London.  She has been directly involved in over 20 deals covering buyouts, growth capital and early stage technology investments.

Andy Gregory, Regional Director, North of England and Northern Ireland
Andy is a member of BGF’s Investment Committee and leads our investment team in the North of England and Northern Ireland, identifying and executing investments. He will sit on the board of some of BGF’s investee companies. Andy has significant experience of regional private equity, having worked as a director in the Manchester offices of ISIS Equity Partners, Bridgepoint, and Royal Bank Development Capital. Most recently Andy was a key member of leading investment firm Key Capital Partners, based in Manchester. He is a chartered accountant with 17 years’ experience in private equity, acquisition finance and corporate finance. He also has industry experience, having been group finance director of Pennine Retail Systems Limited, a leading UK retail software company which was successfully backed by private equity. He is an enthusiastic golfer, enjoys sailing and snowboarding and in quieter moments, plays the piano.

Simon Munro, Regional Director, Scotland
As the Regional Director, Scotland, Simon is responsible for leading the Scottish investment team’s activities around sourcing and executing investments and managing the portfolio post investment. He will sit on a number of portfolio company Boards and is a member of BGF’s Investment Committee.

Simon has 20 years of experience advising and investing in companies, predominantly in the oil and gas industry. He spent eight years with RMD Corporate Finance before leaving as part of a team of five to establish the European office of Simmons & Company International, the boutique energy investment bank. He then spent a year in Hong Kong in JPMorgan’s Oil and Gas Industry Team.  In 2002 Simon joined Lime Rock, the specialist energy private equity firm, to help establish its presence in Europe. He became a Managing Director in 2008 and sat on the firm’s Investment Committee and on numerous portfolio company Boards.

Simon is married with two children.

Mark Bryant, Business Director
As Business Director of BGF, Mark assists the investment team to assess the operational capability/opportunity of potential investees. Post-investment he will work closely with the existing management team to ensure maximum profitable growth is achieved. Mark works to strengthen and deepen the operating resource to ensure BGF provides the best added-value support for its investees.

Mark has had 30 years’ experience in Industry, primarily as the Managing Director/CEO of a number of manufacturing businesses, ranging from instrumentation, sensors to rigid plastic packing, covering sectors from aviation, automotive to process, oil & gas to personal care, test and metrology. Export throughout the world has been a consistent aspect of these companies. Mark has sold a number of the companies he has led and has successfully integrated bolt-on acquisitions. He is married with two children and lives in Edinburgh. He has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies from Middlesex University.

Alistair Brew, Investment Director
Alistair joined BGF in July 2011 as an Investment Director based in London.  His main role is to identify and successfully execute investments for the Fund.  He will also sit on the board of some of the Fund’s investee companies.

Alistair has 10 years of experience in small company investment, initially at Close Brothers and then at Octopus Ventures, where he was involved in a large number of growth capital and management buyout transactions, across multiple sectors and throughout the UK. In the majority of cases, Alistair also joined the board of the investee companies. Alistair began his career at Price Waterhouse with direct entry into the Business Recovery Services team.

Alistair has an MA in Modern History from Oxford University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He is married with three children and lives near Guildford.

Chris Hodges, Investment Director
Chris is an investment director with over 11 years of experience in venture capital, growth capital and leveraged buy-outs with The Carlyle Group and 3i Group plc. He has served on the boards of several SMEs including The Mill and NP Aerospace and has experience in a range of sectors including defence and security, engineering, media (software and services), semiconductors, telecommunications and alternative energy. Prior to becoming an investment principal, Chris was with PA Consulting where he provided due diligence services to the investment community. Chris has an MA in Physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Raf Goovaerts, Investment Director
Raf joined BGF in March 2011 as an Investment Director to help set up the investment process and strategy. Raf also recruited the initial BGF investment team managers. He is now responsible for leading on a number of initial BGF investments.

Raf worked previously as a Principal at CCMP Capital (fka JP Morgan Partners) from 2000 to 2010 where he was involved in a number of buyout transactions across Europe. Prior to that, Raf was a member of JP Morgan’s M&A team in New York from 1996 to 2000.

Raf holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Antwerp and an MA in International Economics and International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC.

Duncan Macrae, Investment Director
Duncan joined BGF in August 2011 as an Investment Director in its Edinburgh office.  Duncan’s remit is to generate investment opportunities in Scotland and the North of England.  He will also be instrumental in building a team of professionals to complete investments throughout the region.

Duncan’s most recent role was in the retail sector where he was Finance Director of a chain of high fashion stores.  Prior to that Duncan was a Director of Dunedin Capital Partners where he led a number of mid-market buyout transactions throughout the UK between 2001 and 2009. He has also spent time in the corporate finance arena with Noble & Company Ltd as well as the textile industry with Dawson International Plc.

Duncan, a former Scotland under 21 rugby internationalist, holds an MA from the University of Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences.  He is also a chartered accountant having qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.  Duncan is married with two children

Ian Downing, Investment Director
Ian joined BGF in September 2011 and is an Investment Director based in the Birmingham office. He is responsible for finding and completing new investments and working closely with management teams to support their growth plans.

He has more than 10 years’ experience in private equity with 3i Group plc. For the majority of this time Ian was based in the Midlands, where he completing over 20 new investments across a broad range of sectors and situations, exclusively in UK-based, independent SME’s. He was responsible for a portfolio of investments that realised proceeds in excess of £200m.

Latterly, he enjoyed five years as the CFO of an independent company providing specialised clinical trial services to the global pharmaceutical sector.

Ian is married with three children, lives in the West Midlands and has a BSc (Hons) in Physics and Electronics from Warwick University.

Tim Whittard, Investment Director
Tim joined BGF in September 2011 as an investment director to identify, execute and manage investments for the Fund. Prior to joining BGF, he gained ten years’ investment experience with leading UK mid-market private equity firms, Gresham Private Equity and Sovereign Capital. During this time Tim invested in a variety of UK SME businesses across the retail, leisure, industrial products, education and support services sectors in a range of transaction types including development and growth capital deals and management buy-outs.

Tim began his career with Coopers & Lybrand where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and has a BSc in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from the University or Birmingham. He is married with two children

Mark Freer, Investment Director
Mark joined BGF in October 2011 as an Investment Director, based in the Birmingham Office. He is responsible for identifying, executing and supporting new investments in achieving their growth plans.

Mark has more than 12 years’ private equity experience in the Midlands with LDC and Barclays Ventures, where he was involved in executing and managing a wide variety of investments across a broad range of sectors. He began his career with Coopers & Lybrand, is a Chartered Accountant, and has a Management Science degree from Loughborough University.

Mark is married with three children and lives in the West Midlands.

James Austin, Investment Director
James joined BGF’s Bristol office in December 2011.  He is responsible for the origination and execution of investments in Wales and South West England.  He will also sit on the boards of certain investee companies.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant in Glasgow, James has specialised in corporate finance transactions for more than 15 years.  He has worked in the South and South West of England for more than eight years, as a Director in the RBS Structured Finance Southern team and latterly as an Investment Director in LDC.

He has experience of a broad range of sectors and transaction types and has particular interest in technology and energy growth businesses.  James enjoys golf, rugby and most sports but is usually diverted by two small children and two large dogs.

Matthew Reed, Director of Risk & Finance
Matthew Reed joined BGF in March 2011 and has responsibility for BGF’s regulatory and finance functions.  Matthew’s role encompasses risk and corporate governance oversight.

Matthew Reed was educated in Australia where he obtained his Chartered Accountant qualification.  Matthew has held a number of Chief Financial Officer roles with private equity firms including CCMP Capital Partners UK and Santander Infrastructure Capital.  Prior to commencing his Private Equity roles, Matthew worked for JP Morgan Chase for six years, performing numerous roles during that time including Financial Controller positions in both Luxembourg and London, and later as a Global Product Controller in the bank’s Worldwide Security Services business.

Tim Clarke, Director of Resources
Tim is responsible for resourcing and team-building for BGF. As well as assembling and growing BGF’s management team, Tim continues to develop relationships with prospective partners in the private equity and business communities to identify investment opportunities. He provides support to the investment team in evaluating the management of prospective portfolio companies and offering strategic advice as they grow. Tim is developing BGF Talent, a network of experienced sector specialists who will partner with BGF as operating partners, advisers and NEDs, working with and supporting BGF’s portfolio investments.

Tim qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG Peat, Marwick, Mitchell in London.  In 1989, as a founder partner, he launched The Bloomsbury Group, a specialist executive search firm, and built a search and advisory business, providing board level strategic advice and resourcing solutions to the private equity, venture capital and corporate finance advisory markets.

Tim is married with two daughters and has a BA (Hons) in Economics from Exeter University.

Jenny Chandler, Human Resources Director
Jenny Chandler has over 20 years’ HR experience in a number of different sectors.  She started her career in food manufacturing with Nestlé and subsequently moved to JP Morgan, developing her experience of the financial services sector. More recently she has held significant HR leadership roles in accountancy, investment management, management consultancy and real estate consultancy. In addition to leading internal HR teams in the delivery of strategic and operational advice, a key element of Jenny’s most recent roles has been the delivery of services to external clients.

Jenny is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD).

John Eggleston, Director of IT
As Director of IT for BGF, John works alongside the investment teams to assess technology capability and provide ongoing strategic support to management teams within the investment portfolio. In addition, John has responsibility for BGF’s own internal IT strategy and service delivery.

John has held a number of senior IT roles, creating and managing critical technology-led services across diverse sectors. This included 12 years at Callcredit Group, latterly as Group CIO, where he architected IT platforms to create the UK’s 3rd credit reference agency from inception. John led the IT teams though rapid growth, conducted extensive investment due diligence, integrated several businesses and took the group through a £100m MBO alongside private equity partners.

John is a Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), holding fellowships at the Institute of Directors (FIoD), Institute of Leadership & Management (FInstLM) and Chartered Institute for IT (FBCS).

Jon Rhodes, Director of Communications and Marketing
Jon joined BGF in September 2011 from leading international corporate communications firm Brunswick where he was a Partner. Jon specialises in corporate reputation-building and most recently built and ran Brunswick’s growing public affairs practice in London. He has advised a wide range of international blue-chip companies and UK SMEs.

Jon began his career with the Labour Party, where he worked as a policy adviser and speech writer for Shadow Cabinet members for four years up to the General Election of 1997. After the election, he joined PolyGram Filmed Entertainment where he worked on press and public affairs issues, and in particular was the chief ‘industry’ author of the Government’s 1998 White Paper on the future of the British film industry. He holds a degree in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics, a masters degree in European Politics and Policy Making and an MBA from London Business School.