EXALTA works with ambitious owner-managed businesses across manufacturing, engineering, electro-mechanical products, lighting, construction materials, and services. I take Non-Executive Chair and fractional NED roles where owners want a board-level partner, not an advisor who delivers a report and disappears.
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What do you love most about your job?
The conversation around the boardroom table when an owner-manager finally gets to talk through the real strategic challenge with someone who has been through it themselves. After 40 years building and exiting businesses, I have seen most situations before, and the value is helping owners cut through to the right call quickly, then building the resilience to execute it. The relationships run for years, the decisions matter, and the outcomes show up in the P&L and the headcount. That is a meaningful job.
What inspired you to start your own business?
After exiting my own lighting group (WILA) in 2016, I had a choice: take another corporate role or use 30 years of operator experience to help owner-managed businesses face the challenges I had been through myself. Too many advisors had never sat in the operator's chair, and too many owners I knew were paying for reports rather than results. EXALTA was built around board-level accountability rather than advice, Non-Executive Chair and fractional NED roles with skin in the game. That was the gap I wanted to fill, and it still is.
Why should our clients choose you?
Three reasons. First, I have been the operator, over 40 years building and exiting businesses from £2M to £200M, including my own lighting group (WILA). I have done the job, not just advised on it. Second, I take board-level roles with real accountability, Non-Executive Chair or fractional NED on monthly retainer, not project-based reports that sit on a shelf. Third, I bring sector depth in manufacturing, engineering, electro-mechanical products, lighting, construction materials, medical products, EV charging, and holiday and leisure. If you want a credible voice at your board table who has been through the next stage, that is the conversation I have most often.
Can you provide your services online or remotely? If so, please add details.
Yes, partially. Strategic planning sessions, financial reviews, and mentoring calls can of course be based around video; but based on experience are far better when face to face, I run regular check-ins both in person and via video, with most retained clients between formal board meetings. However, the most valuable parts of a Non-Executive Director or Chair role, being in the room for board meetings, walking the factory floor, meeting the leadership team in person, reading the body language in difficult conversations, really need to happen on-site. Most of my engagements are a blend, with monthly or quarterly site visits and remote contact in between.
What changes have you made to keep your customers safe from Covid-19?
The hybrid working patterns that emerged during Covid have settled into standard practice across my engagements. Site visits resume normally under whatever protocols a client business operates, and remote collaboration tools are now well embedded for the work that doesn't require in-person presence. If anything, the shift has improved the rhythm of monthly board engagement for several clients, more frequent contact between formal meetings, with travel reserved for the work that genuinely benefits from being on-site.
Fractional NED
A part-time Non-Executive Director role on monthly retainer, sitting on your board with continuity over years. Brings external challenge, governance, and strategic perspective without the cost of a full-time hire.
Non-Executive Chair
Chairing the board of an owner-managed business, bringing structure to meetings, holding the executive team to account, and acting as a sparring partner to the owner-shareholder. Typically a multi-year retained relationship.
Non-Executive Director
Standalone NED appointments for businesses needing additional board-level experience, particularly across manufacturing, engineering, electro-mechanical products, lighting, construction materials, medical products, and holiday and leisure parks.
Board Advisory
Strategic and operational advice at board level for businesses without a formal NED structure. Useful for owner-managed businesses preparing to formalise their board, navigating a transition, or planning an exit.
Strategic Advisory
Confidential one-to-one advice to owners, MDs and shareholders on strategy, growth direction, structure, and people. A flexible alternative to a formal NED role for owners wanting an experienced sounding board without the board-level commitment.
Strategic Planning
Structured planning engagements that begin with audit and diagnosis, build a written strategic plan, and translate it into governance, KPIs and a board cadence that owners can actually run, not a report that sits on a shelf.
Business Growth
Identifying and unlocking growth: new markets, new channels, pricing, customer concentration risk, sales force restructure, and exports. Practical and operator-led, drawing on 40 years building businesses from £2M to £200M.
Operational Restructure
Reorganising commercial, sales, operations and senior leadership structures to remove bottlenecks, clarify accountability, and prepare the business for the next stage of growth or exit.
Commercial Strategy
Strategy for sales and commercial functions, channel structure, customer segmentation, pricing, sales force design, exports, and account management, drawn from 40 years operating across UK and international markets.
Mentoring
One-to-one mentoring for owners, MDs and senior leaders. Typically a monthly retained relationship: a confidential, experienced sounding board for the decisions that don't easily fit anywhere else.
Family Business Advisory
Strategic and governance advice for family-owned and family-run businesses, including the particular tensions of having family members in senior roles, balancing the needs of family and non-family executives, and preparing the business for the next generation's involvement or an eventual external sale.
Succession Planning
Preparing owner-managed and family businesses for the eventual transition of leadership and ownership; whether through next-generation handover, management buyout, trade sale, or external recruitment of an MD. Includes leadership development, deal structuring, board readiness, and timing the handover well.
