Davie Monks
- Specialism: CFO with broad experience including founding businesses in the renewables sector, advising start-ups, and providing buy-side and sell-side support.
- Track Record: Chartered Accountant with a blend of experience as a business founder, consultant (boutique New York based firm serving private equity clients), and finance leader in blue-chip organisations, including Big Four and major financial services.
- Offer: Commercially focused CFO and business adviser—experienced in building finance functions, leading them day-to-day, and supporting fundraising and exits across businesses ranging from early-stage to multi billion-pound organisations.
- Davie says: “A CFO in today’s market needs to understand both the business and its key stakeholders. I have almost 40 years’ experience as an adviser, consultant, banker, founder and CFO.”
- Try me: linkedin.com
Having spent the first 25 years of my career in what I think of as traditional Chartered Accountant roles, working across audit, insolvency, and senior finance positions in blue-chip organisations such as NatWest, Lloyds Bank, and GlaxoSmithKline, I reached a point where I wanted to do something different.
In 2011, shortly after the financial crisis, I left RBS and became involved in setting up a renewable energy company at the point the Feed-in Tariff was introduced. Our aim was to build a UK-wide renewables business across a range of technologies.
The company grew during the boom years of the Feed-in Tariff. As government policy changed and the market moved away from onshore wind, I repositioned the business accordingly. It has since evolved into an investment asset holding a 285-acre woodland estate, an operational wind turbine, and a number of rental assets. Day-to-day management is now relatively light touch, which gives me the flexibility to support other projects and clients.
Along the way, I learned very quickly what it takes to run a fast-growing, newly established, cash-constrained organisation in an unfamiliar sector. Coming from large, well-established, and well-funded organisations, it was a very different environment. In the early stages, cash is king, and businesses need to balance short-term financial realities with longer-term strategic vision.
Over the last decade, after relocating from Scotland to the South East, I worked with a New York-based consultancy supporting European clients through pre- and post-sale situations. More recently, I worked largely remotely, helping establish and grow US-based businesses in the medical sector. Alongside development work on the farm, I’ve also supported start-up clients in an advisory capacity.
Looking ahead, I’m now focused on expanding my portfolio of small and medium-sized businesses that want a commercially focused CFO with a practical and like-minded approach.