I oversaw the Company's financial operations (including its sale into the Engine Group) and led teams working on a broad range of projects to develop pioneering services for the public sector. These included 'Teachers TV' for the Department for Education (employing over 50 staff) and a support service for Head Teachers commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

As a co-owner of Baber Smith Plc, I helped to grow the Company during this period from a small creative agency with 6 staff into an integrated marketing agency with 30 employees and a client portfolio that included Airtours, GE, Marconi and Toys R Us. As Commercial Director I was involved in financial management, operational management and overseeing accounts providing strategic communications, advertising, branding, e-marketing and direct marketing consultancy.

I was brought into Aurelia Public Relations to bring structure and control to the financial operations of the business and to drive its development towards sale. By this stage the Company boasted a healthy client list that included Versace, Bose, Tag Heuer and The Arcadia Group. The year before I joined, the Company made £50k profit on a turnover of a little over £1m. By the end of my first year we had increased the profit to £250k simply by cutting costs and restructuring roles. In the second year we sold the agency into the Abbott Mead Vickers Group in a deal worth over £2m.

This first job in industry enabled me to cut my teeth as a Finance Director. Within 3 years we had turned the Company from a 5-man design agency into a niche CRM agency with 35 staff, serving a blue-chip client base that included American Express, British Airways, Sainsburys and M&G. More importantly we had quadrupled the profits to £600k in the process.