Malcolm is an entrepreneur who focuses on creating achievable strategies and helping find the resources to make them happen.
Current activities include:
- Providing a chairman service to synthesise the group’s ideas into a coherent whole;
- Using analytical skills to dig down into the detail and identify problems before they become significant;
- Mentoring leadership teams so as to give them the resources that enable them to play their full part;
- Negotiating and closing deals (sales, purchase or funding contracts) that are ’win-win’;
- Using connections to find resources that can solve problems and create opportunities.
Malcolm gained a law degree from Bristol University in 1982 and qualified as a chartered accountant at Stoy Hayward (now BDO) in 1985. He moved from audit to corporate finance and, in 1988, became FD of Baldwin plc, a small quoted company, concentrating on acquisitions, disposals and shareholder relations.
At FD Solutions, Malcolm used expertise as a part-time FD to help create achievable strategies for various SMEs. Three are worth specific mention:
- Between 1992 and 1995, Malcolm created the business model for one of the first help-desk operations in the country, which received investment from 3i, won contracts with Microsoft and then was sold to Softbank.
- Between 1995 and 1999, Malcolm restored financial control in a software business which had lost £2m of VC investment. It returned to profit in 12 months.
- Between 1994 and 2001, he provided financial intelligence to the trustees of a major London theatre as it struggled with poorly conceived capital projects and fallout from 9/11. That advice helped it succeed in its aims, generating surpluses of £400,000 and remaining one of the most highly regarded theatres in the UK. Since then the Arts Council has invited FD Solutions to assist in projects for some of its other member organisations.
