“I chair the board, and offer guidance and strategic input to our own and other companies through my role as an Innovate UK Scale-up Director”

Chris has a wide-ranging business & industrial management background, from factory floor to group board level. He has also spent time in education as a lecturer and at senior management level. The core of this work has always been about managing change, evaluating, and implementing projects that have delivered new products, production processes and new premises; He has also developed new methods of learning and visualization in technical areas of expertise. 

He has worked for a number of blue-chip companies such as Boots, Beechams, Cadbury and the Callard & Bowser group finishing his industrial career with Leaf group as a group board director for this major global food group.

What is something growing SMEs have to deal with that you want to fix?   

Every company should establish a clear strategic vision for their future and have a plan to scale-up, and grow in a sustainable way.

What is one piece of advice you find yourself giving often?     

Early in a companies life – Build a good team around you to share the burden of the scale-up journey – it is your most multidisciplinary challenge.       

If you could write a book about your life, what would the title be and why?

Can we really do this? I have always dealt with complex project challenges and realised early that I couldn’t do that alone; it was always a team –  in work and in life.  

What are your key skills?   

This is a question that others should answer for you, because in my experience you never really know exactly what you bring to a meeting. However, always being honest in my opinion, and clear and straightforward in my delivery seems to have worked!

What are your strengths?

Strong communication skills | Strong presentation skills | Project Management | Logical problem solving approach | Strategic thinking skills