Interim Commercial Finance Director · PE-Backed Environments · Board-Level Operator

Fix the numbers. Then use them to drive the business.

I step into PE-backed and high-growth businesses to stabilise forecasting, rebuild planning architecture and give leadership teams numbers they can actually run the business on.

When finance is slow, inconsistent or not trusted, decisions drift.

I embed as a senior commercial finance leader — typically alongside the CFO and PE stakeholders — to rebuild forecasting discipline, compress reporting cycles and surface the drivers that actually move EBITDA.

Across businesses from £30m to £1.3bn in revenue, my focus is always the same: clarity, control and commercially usable insight.

£1.3bn

Revenue under stewardship

£9m

Verified OPEX reduction

±4%

Sustained forecast accuracy

£80–90m

EBITDA uplift modelled

Schedule a Call → Capabilities LinkedIn ↗

Typical mandate

Interim finance leadership where confidence in the numbers has slipped

Most assignments begin when the numbers are late, credibility is thinning, or the business needs stronger planning discipline without waiting for a permanent hire.

Forecasts that can be defended at board and PE level

Reporting cycles compressed toward WD4

Driver-based models linking operations to EBITDA

Sharper visibility on cost, cash and accountability

Where I Fit

Where I typically get called in

The pattern is usually the same: the business is moving quickly, the finance function is not, and leadership no longer has the confidence or visibility it needs to make the right calls at speed.

Forecasts are unreliable, constantly moving, or loaded with judgement rather than drivers

Reporting lands too late for leadership to act with confidence

Board or PE stakeholders are asking harder questions than the current numbers can answer

There is no clean link between operational performance and EBITDA

Budgeting is manual, political, fragmented or too dependent on individuals

Post-deal integration or restructuring has broken visibility across functions or regions

Cost pressure is rising but the business lacks the visibility to cut intelligently

The CFO needs additional horsepower quickly, without making a permanent hire

Capabilities

Two engagement models. One standard of delivery.

The core offer is interim commercial finance leadership. For earlier-stage businesses, I also support a smaller number of structured outsourced finance mandates where clean reporting and decision-grade insight are required before a full in-house team is built.

Interim Commercial Finance Director

Embed fast · Stabilise quickly · Build properly

Senior interim commercial finance leadership for businesses that need immediate control and credibility in their numbers. I operate directly with the CFO, CEO and investors to stabilise performance, rebuild planning discipline and deliver insight that stands up at board and PE level.

→Forecasts you can defend — not just explain
→Driver-based financial models linking operations to EBITDA
→Reporting cycles compressed toward WD4
→Board packs that answer questions before they are asked
→Target Operating Model design and implementation
→Post-acquisition integration and carve-out structuring
→Exit readiness, due diligence support and investor transparency
→Procurement governance, supplier renegotiation and contract optimisation
→Process re-engineering and operational policy design
→OPEX rationalisation and structural cost reduction

This is not advisory. This is embedded delivery. · Typically outside IR35

Outsourced Finance Function

For businesses that need structure before scale

A structured, board-ready finance function for growth-stage businesses that need reliable reporting, cleaner financial controls and commercially useful insight — without immediately building a full in-house team.

→Period-end close and management accounts preparation
→Board reporting pack with executive-level narrative commentary
→Custom KPI dashboards and BI-enabled performance reporting
→Rolling cash flow forecasting and covenant monitoring
→Actuals vs budget variance analysis with commercial context
→Scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis on demand
→PE and institutional investor reporting standards
→Xero-native infrastructure, clean and audit-ready from day one

Engagements typically from £5,000 per month · Scope-dependent

Intelligence Infrastructure

From reporting to decision-making

Most finance functions report what happened. Far fewer explain what to do next. Every engagement is built around turning financial data into clear commercial decisions.

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Driver-Based Modelling

P&L linked to operational KPIs, not static assumptions

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Scenario & Sensitivity Analysis

Quantified upside and downside across every strategic decision

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Power BI & Tableau

Board-ready visualisation built for executives, not analysts

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Custom Commercial Models

Investment appraisal, unit economics, pricing architecture

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KPI Architecture

Standardised, investable metrics that withstand PE scrutiny

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Investor-Grade Reporting

Exit-ready packs, LP reporting and due diligence infrastructure

Selected Experience

A sustained record of delivery

Over a decade of board-level commercial finance leadership across PE-backed organisations from £65m to £1.3bn in revenue — spanning transformation, value creation, strategic planning and finance function build.

SpaMedica

Director of Commercial Finance & Acting Head of FP&A

£350m · PE-Backed (Veonet / Ontario Teachers) · 2024–2025

£9m recurring OPEX reduction — 11% EBITDA impact
Forecast accuracy transformed from ±10% to ±4%
£350m five-year plan with £80–90m projected EBITDA uplift
Inventory shrink reduced from 15–20% to 4% via AI-backed architecture

Study Group

Global Director, Commercial Finance & Business Insights

£1.3bn · PE-Backed (Ardian / AXA) · Global · 2021–2023

Global TOM delivered post-acquisition across 30+ markets
Forecast accuracy improved from ~70% to 90%+ — seven-year plan architected
£35m+ benefit from £100m commission redesign — conversion 3% to 17%
Reporting cycle compressed from Working Day 9 to Working Day 4

Elvie

Global Director of Commercial Finance

£65m · PE-Backed (BlackRock) · 2021

10% OPEX reduction within the first operating quarter
3PL partner selection, renegotiation and full operational migration
Strategic Operating Model built from first principles

Revolution Beauty

Commercial Finance Director

£150m · AIM Listed 2021 · 2019–2020

Four-year IPO plan underpinning AIM listing in 2021
£2m annual saving via fulfilment insource — 30% logistics cost reduction
NetSuite ERP delivered end-to-end across global operations
Margin forecast accuracy improved to 85–90%

Yodel

Head of Commercial Finance & Transformation Director

£400m · PE-Backed (Solano Partners) · 2018–2019

Proprietary activity-based costing model built from first principles
Depot-level P&L established across a national logistics network
10% annual cost savings projected over three years

Amazon

Finance Manager & Senior Finance Business Partner

£450m Last-Mile Budget · 2017–2018

£450m UK last-mile budget — 900,000 parcels per day
Financial model for Amazon Flex UK national rollout
13% cost reduction & 8% efficiency improvement across EU units

Business Case

What does your current finance function cost you?

Not just in salary — but in leadership capacity lost, decisions delayed and insight that arrives too late to act on.

Compare the true annual cost of maintaining an in-house finance team against a fully managed outsourced function. Adjust the sliders to reflect your current structure.

Finance headcount

1 person5 people

2 people

Average salary per person

£30,000£120,000

£60,000

A business closing its books on Working Day 9 is making every strategic decision on nine-day-old data. Pricing calls, headcount decisions, covenant compliance — all running on a lag.

Compress the cycle to Working Day 4 and your leadership team gains a five-day head start on every commercial call it makes — every single month. That is not a reporting improvement. It is a competitive advantage.

“The businesses that win aren’t better informed. They’re informed first.”

WD4

Reporting cycle target

5 days

Head start vs WD9

90%+

Forecast accuracy delivered

Zero

Surprises at the board table

What institutional-grade insight looks like

Board packs with executive narrative, not just data. KPI dashboards that surface the right signal. Variance commentary that tells the story before the board asks the question. Scenario models ready before the meeting, not after it.

The cost of delayed insight
A competitor who prices, hires or cuts five days before you does so with information you did not yet have. Over twelve months, that gap compounds into decisions made in the wrong direction — or not made at all.

Credentials

Trusted in environments where the numbers have to stand up

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Over a Decade in PE-Backed Environments

Trusted by PE-backed and investor-led businesses to deliver numbers that stand up under scrutiny

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PRINCE2 Practitioner

Certified Project & Programme Management

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BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance

University of Hertfordshire · 2011

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5th Quarter Financial Solutions Ltd

Company No. 09479672 · Incorporated 2015 · Active

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UK-Wide Availability

Hybrid and on-site mandates supported · Immediate availability

Sectors & Systems

Environments where I create value

PE-backed transformation mandates, post-acquisition integration environments and high-growth organisations where the requirement is for pace, precision and board-level credibility.

Healthcare

EdTech

Consumer

Logistics

eCommerce

Retail

Technology

MedTech

Post-Acquisition

PE Portcos

IPO Readiness

Exit Readiness

TOM Design

Transformation

Technology Stack

SAP

Oracle

NetSuite

Power BI

Tableau

SQL

Hyperion

BPC

Salesforce

Python

Advanced Excel / VBA

Cognos

Xero