Professionally
I’m an accountant by trade but my partner says I’m a designer at heart. After I took over the family accountancy practice back in 2009, I built it further by becoming a specialist at working with high potential tech companies as well as all the traditional things that accountants do. It just seems that there’s a natural fit with my personality and exciting high-growth businesses with that kind of spirit and ambition. I seem to have developed a pretty unique set of skills that go beyond the normal things that you’d expect from the bean counter in the gang.
I’ve been on trips to learn from global companies in Silicon Valley, helped raise finance and put financial and performance measure systems in place for numerous scaling startups, as well as performing strategic FD roles with larger traditional businesses. I’ve loved mentoring on a number of tech accelerator programs and lean startup weekends and I’ve been a keen advocate of the lean startup movement since way before it became cool to say that!
I’d say I’m fluent in finance as you might expect but I bring a set of skills that allow us to underpin everything we do with clear and powerful performance metric systems that can prove the ROI of any investment in your people and processes. Not only that, but I find that having clear measurables in place really helps clarify the desired outcomes for everyone, and makes things as clear as possible for all stakeholders.
I love to talk to anyone with anything interesting to say, and I’m an avid believer in paying things forward, so please do send me an email if you’d like to chat about anything whatsoever.
Personally
I’m a fun-loving Northerner that enjoys laughter and adventure. I have two amazing kids, Millie and Freddie as well as the best dog in the world, Teddie (we all think our dog’s the best though don’t we?) I also have an incredible partner that you might recognise, Vim.
As an accountant, it’s a legal requirement that I play golf but my passions outside my family are for Man United (season ticket holder since I was seven) as well as getting into any kind of fitness-related adventure possible. Running, cycling, rowing, hiking, weight lifting, anything and everything really. That's not to say I’m a total health freak though, I love my food and am usually at my happiest when surrounded by friends, just having a laugh with a beer in my hand.
In the time that I have left after all of that, I’m usually listening to music and I try to get to as many gigs as I can, anything from Indie to Hip Hop. You’ll usually find me at the bar at a gig or on the dance floor on a night out.
The day to day
Numbers are key to knowing where we’re heading, how far away we are and how we’ll know when we get there
Gareth Burton