A Brief History
I’m a puzzle solver. I've always loved puzzles of all sorts – jigsaws, brain teasers, sudokus, etc. Near the end of my banking career I became COO of a trading division. I loved the diverse challenges of the job – wearing different hats every day and working on diverse problems all day long.
At the same time I started to get involved at the strategic board level in the organisation. This was exhilarating to me as the higher level strategic challenges sharply contrasted the shorter-term operational puzzles I was working on at the same time.
In 2017 I left banking and joined a 1-man SME and helped it grow and thrive. I also began to mentor social impact startups on their strategy and financial models.
A New Beginning
Florentum Advisors was founded in January 2025. After 25 years I decided to pivot and broaden my reach by offering my services through my own company. Florentum was born from the merging of the words ‘Flourish’ and ‘Momentum’, as my aim is to help businesses flourish and build healthy momentum for sustainable growth.
Why
I catalyse ethical business and empower it to be a force for good in improving society and the environment
Vision
I want to build a world in which businesses are run in an ethical and sustainable fashion where stakeholder capitalism is a benefit to society
Mission
To work with mid-sized businesses to help them build their governance structures and operational foundations so they can grow sustainably and ethically.
Values
ethical business, stakeholder capitalism, fairness and equality
Why you should work with me
I'm not a consultant, I'm a consigliere - a close, trusted friend and confidant. I seek to build a relationship with you beyond the contractual terms. This allows me to better understand what makes you and your firm tick and to better serve your needs.
The full details
Check out my whole experience and thought leadership on LinkedIn:
Case Studies of Previous Work
Governance Reimagined
The Board of The Economist Educational Foundation needed governance expertise. Joined the charity as a trustee and assisted the board to improve management reporting, add governance frameworks, transition the CEO and solidify executive team. Also worked on succession planning with the Chair. The board is much more productive now and works more closely with the executive.
Audit and Financial Assurance
The Board of ASCEND Herts needed financial assurance to ensure it was still a going concern. Joined the charity as a trustee and audited financials and mentored finance director to provide better reporting to the Board. Assisted the charity to be taken over by a larger entity and wind up operations.
Crisis management
NTree’s industrial metals investment fund platform depended heavily on metal supplied by a Russian mining company. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the platform was in crisis and had to be completely 'De-Russianized'. Led the restructuring of suppliers, processes and contracts to completely redesign the platform and relaunch 18 months later.
New Product Design
NTree’s mining client were keen to exploit the booming electric vehicles (EV) market. As COO, led design of pioneering physically-backed EV metals basket investment product. Guided research to define metals intensity of EV subsectors; set up system to manage basket composition and annual reweights; negotiated with agents to source niche metals and define index methodology/sign contract for publication of index values daily; and worked with legal to create base prospectus and key investment documents. Succeeded in enabling launch of product in Jan 2022 with $10m investment.
Operational Innovation
UniCredit Bank were keen to launch an exchange traded fund (ETF) market-making business but lacked IT budget to build pricing tools. As Structured Commodity Trader with strong quantitative skills, designed/ built transparent pricing tools. Developed platform specs and won stakeholder buy-in; built and programmed platform over 4-months; enabled launch of new business line; and project managed IT function to code platform in their own structure and decommission spreadsheets once budget was secured. Succeeded in enabling the desk to generate an extra $2m p/a as a result of the new tools.
Digital Transformation
Goldman Sachs needed to spread use of their newly founded Algorithmic Trading team’s platform across the larger team of 200 equity traders. As Financial Engineer/Trader, supported new trading technology development. Built targeted training materials for traders; developed metrics to track usage and performance of trading algorithms; and engaged individual trading teams to onboard and educate them on the new algorithmic trading platform. Succeeded in increasing trading teams’ usage of the new platform from 0% to 75% over a 2-year period.