Managing Director and Principal Consultant

"Most of my career has been in small to medium sized businesses from start-ups, through to financing growth and planning exit strategies", says Simon.  It seemed natural to channel that experience into SRN Associates in order to help other small to medium sized businesses achieve their goals."

Simon has over 22 years experience in industry, over 15 of which have been in senior management positions.  He originally trained and qualified as an electronics engineer, spending his early career in the hi tech manufacturing sector.  Following five years of technical focus he moved into broader business management and specialised in finance.  He qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1993, becoming an Associate of the Institute at that time, and was awarded Fellowship status in 1998.

His career in senior management took him through smaller hitech manufacturing companies, and the Bowthorpe Engineering group, before being appointed in 1995 as Finance Director of PWA Group, a software applications and professional services company.

Simon financially led the business through significant growth both in the UK and overseas.  This was followed by a successful £5m Venture Capital funding in 1999, and a sale of the company to Great Plains Software (a NASDAQ listed company and now part of Microsoft) in 2000.

Following the acquisition of PWA Simon became Managing Partner in his own financial management consultancy business, continuing to work with Great Plains and Microsoft Business Solutions in Europe and concentrating mainly on business integration and strategic planning.  

Recent major projects have included:

• Successful exit sale of software business to US corporation

• Financial management of an e-commerce start-up business focused on e-retail supply chain

• Financial management of the transition of a Swiss IT company from Zurich to the UK and merge it with another company

• Financial restructuring of an IT company to extract a major shareholder from the business

• Restructuring of a software company to merge two business into one new group

• Financial management and VC funding process for a media/IT startup

Simon is now Managing Director of SRN Associates Limited, a broader based consultancy business aimed at helping small to medium sized businesses both survive and thrive.