Confessions of an Entrepreneur
Season 1
by Carl Swansbury
In this episode Carl chats with Joanna Kingston-Davies, the co-founder of the MAPD Group, which powers the growth of local law firms nationally, through acquisition. Following more than 20 years in leadership and management roles within the legal sector in both France and the UK, she set up the MAPD Group in 2020. In her conversation with Carl, she tells a very personal and fascinating story about her life and career and how she, through the business, aims to make a positive difference for its people, clients and communities.
Andy has been an MD and CEO in a variety of businesses throughout his career, before more recently pursue a career in becoming a NED and advise to a number of high growth, predominantly privately owned businesses. He tells Carl about his transition from full time MD to NED, that many people look to try and achieve and in this episode he gives his insight into that journey and what others can learn from his experiences.
In this episode Carl sits down with Jo Whitfield, fund director at FW Capital. Jo has built a successful business in the North East of England within FW Capital providing much needed funding to privately owned, high growth, aspirational SMEs as they make their next steps in their scale-up journeys. They discuss Jo’s career history, what drives her and her passion for helping SME’s achieve their growth ambitions.
CEO of Shard Credit Partners, Alastair Brown has a wealth of experience is supporting the growth of SMEs. He founded the direct lending fund, which provides transformational capital to SMEs. Carl and Alistair have worked closely on a range of business transactions, including MBOs and MBIs, and helping business fund growth, but in this episode they go deep into Alastair’s background, to discover why he went from big corporate institution to setting up a small and dynamic direct lending fund. They also discuss his aspirations and ambitions as an individual as the leader of a business that is focused on achieving growth for SMEs.
Charlie Hoult is one of the North of England’s most prolific and successful entrepreneurs. A specialist in leadership, investment finance, strategy, entrepreneurship, tech and marketing, Charlie speaks to Carl about his fascinating career and his core beliefs to create, challenge and drive, which has helped not only his businesses, but others he supports.
Ian Kinnery is the Scale Up Coach. Since 2005, he’s been helping business leaders to grow themselves and their businesses with highly personalised coaching solutions that guarantee results. As a Scaling Up certified coach with over three decades of personal experience starting and scaling businesses, Ian has, in this episode, volumes of advice and experience to share with listeners.
In this episode Carl speaks to Michael Hall, CEO of eQS Group. Interesting ind 10 years a Barclays before choosing to treain to become a qualified accountant, which enabled him to move into a Finance Director role at a facilities management business before more recently becoming CFO and now CEO of eQS Group, which is a leading national equality, inclusion and diversity consultancy. It’s not common for CFO’s to make the move to become CEO, so Carl gains an insight into Michael’s journey and how he managed a significant acquisition programme.
Carl chats with Gary Lumby MBE, one of the most prolific Non-Execs in the North of England. As MD of Focus on Success Ltd he acts as a Non-Executive Chairman or Director for several SMEs in the North East, Yorkshire and London. He also runs three other family businesses and mentors on the Goldman Sach 10000 Small Business Programme. In this episode Carl delves into Gary’s life and career to discover what drives him, how he helps SMEs and what advice he has for small business owners.
Carl sits down with Neil Stephenson, a highly experienced NED who helps tech founders unlock their potential and build great businesses as a coach, investor and advisor. Neil helped build and subsequently sell IT Services business Onyx and has gone on to become a serial investor, NED and board advisor working with a range of businesses. He tells the story behind his entrepreneurial career….