Commercial Architect & Entrepreneur

What does that mean? Well, in the same way that a building needs an architect, so does a business. (Without an architect, a building or business is more prone to collapse.) A business also needs to have someone to be able to define and deliver its compelling business case to its market. Brian excels in both these areas.

Brian has set-up, run and been a successful senior executive in many companies. He has run his own management services company for the last 12 years.

From his school days where he was MD of a Young Enterprise company, into his early 20s where he set up and ran a successful part-time Windsurfing school, more recently he has set up a dozen or so limited companies including a couple of PLCs.

In 1986 he joined and managed a business turnaround for Coniston Computers to lead it to become the N.E. region's leading IT systems reseller. He was rewarded with equity and a seat on the board in recognition of his contribution.

In 1992 he joined Dr Solomon's, where he managed the UK commercial operation to a complete dominance of the UK Anti-Virus market, achieving 600% growth in less than 3½ years, hitting almost £2.5m per month. His work in the UK and with a brief stint in Boston to recover confidence in the fledgling US office, concluded with an MBO and led to an eventual defensive acquisition by McAfee for ~$600m.

He has since been involved in a wide variety of entrepreneurial business projects, including the establishment of a UK distribution company for a Broadband via Satellite service from Hughes Networks and later, an independent IT Security business.

In 1999 he took over the UK operation of Irish IT Security reseller and re-publisher, Priority Data Group. Invited to implement his earlier recovery plan, he produced a remarkable resurrection of the company's fortunes. From a loss making crisis point, he led Priority Data UK to a trebled turnover, whilst still breaking even, within the initial 12 month contract, again leading to a seat on both the UK and Irish Group's boards.

During 2001 he was contracted to run the Northern Europe region for Intrusion Inc, following two rapid changes in the GM position and a spate of local and international lay-offs. He managed the stabilisation and recovery of their channel partner programme, and introduced a range of new products on a negligible budget.

He subsequently worked on a project to introduce two new product ranges from North American software companies in the fields of Information Lifecycle Management and e-mail security policy and management. In late 2004 he was also responsible for creating a sales development plan, setting up a new channel policy and hiring new sales staff for Cambridge Identity Management firm Signify Solutions.

Some of his recent work includes an IT recovery and support project as well as creating business development plans and investment memoranda for such diverse businesses as Inductronics Technology (www.inductronics.co.uk), Invest 4 a Villa (www.invest4avilla.com) and Satellite Propulsion Research (www.emdrive.com). For Inductronics he led the company in 2006 to the cusp of a major deal with $bn component company Belkin Inc, including presentations in Compton, CA to company President Mark Reynoso and his team.

He has recently been responsible for setting up a very local Network in and around the large south Cambridge village of Sawston. The Sawston Business Network enables businesses directors, owners and managers of all company sizes to come together for conversations and to make connections.

Brian is an assured and (occasionally) witty speaker. He has been presenting publicly for many years, and, for example, has been invited by companies such as Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touche to present to them internally on PKI and IDS respectively. He is a Certified Toastmaster, NLP Practitioner and a member of Mensa and the Institute of Directors.

You can find Brian on the following sites: