The Portfolio Executives

My portfolio career was not the result of a single grand plan. After being made redundant from PrimaryBid, I initially set out to find another full-time executive role. Along the way, I began consulting again, which had been a recurring pattern throughout my career between senior in-house roles.

This time, however, I was over 55 and found that securing the right permanent role was more difficult. Rather than wait for the next opportunity, I began building a broader portfolio of consulting and leadership work. It developed naturally, gathered momentum, and I have not looked back.

I had already spent periods working independently between major roles at businesses such as Amazon and Yahoo. Consulting gave me the opportunity to apply what I had learned in one organisation to another while staying commercially active until the right in-house role came along. The difference this time was that consulting stopped being a temporary bridge and became a career in its own right. As the assignments became more substantial and the relationships more enduring, I began to see the value of combining several roles rather than returning to a single full-time position.

One of my first significant successes was my work with London South East. I was initially approached by the founder to prepare a project plan for a new business idea. That first piece of work led to further consulting support and eventually to a part-time COO role. It demonstrated how portfolio work can develop when there is trust, relevance, and a willingness to become closely involved in the business. It also confirmed that I could add the greatest value by moving beyond advice and helping leadership teams turn plans into practical delivery.

Over the years, I’ve learned that many founders and senior leaders reach their position because of deep expertise in a particular product, service, or sector. That does not always mean they have had the opportunity to develop broad experience of running and scaling a business. The fundamentals therefore matter enormously. Clear roles, reliable systems, sound financial controls, consistent processes, and good management information often have more impact on business resilience and leadership stress than anything especially creative or unique.

I sometimes compare it to designing a new car. You do not try to reinvent the basic principles of how a car works. Those are a given. You focus on what makes your car better than the alternatives. But if the fundamentals are wrong, the design will never compensate for it. The same is true in business. I have also learned that long-term advisory work depends on empathy and connection. Technical competence matters, but so does understanding the pressures people are under, how they make decisions, and what success means to them personally.

It’s working for me now because the more businesses I work with, the broader my experience becomes, while many of the underlying challenges become increasingly familiar. Different sectors and organisations of different sizes often face very similar issues around growth, structure, accountability, profitability, and execution. Over time, I have developed practical frameworks for assessing a business, identifying what is constraining performance, considering how value can be increased, and setting out a realistic route forward.

The breadth of my experience, combined with an ability to understand a business quickly and communicate clearly where the issues lie and how they can be addressed, is where I add the greatest value. Clients are often surprised by how much I can absorb in a relatively short period, and by how examples from other sectors can be translated into something directly relevant to their own situation.

Looking ahead, I would like to build a balanced portfolio around a strong foundation of longer-term fractional clients and board roles, while retaining enough capacity to support smaller businesses and mentor start-ups. That balance appeals to me because it combines continuity with variety. Longer-term roles allow me to build trust, understand organisations in depth, and see decisions through to implementation. Board and advisory work creates opportunities to contribute strategically, while mentoring and supporting SMEs keeps me connected to founders at an earlier stage of their journey. Ultimately, my aim is not simply to accumulate roles, but to build a portfolio where I can make a meaningful contribution, work with people I respect, and continue applying my experience in situations where it can have a visible impact.