Industries We Serve

The principles of good governance are universal: a capable board, clear accountability, sound risk management and honest information. But the pressures a board faces vary widely from one sector to another. A fintech business answers to a demanding regulator; a family-owned manufacturer is balancing generations of shareholders; a charity must account to its beneficiaries and the public as well as its funders.

We work across a broad range of industries and tailor our board advisory, director placement and governance support to the realities of each. Below is an overview of the challenges we most often see in each sector, and how we help boards address them. If your sector is not listed, please get in touch; the approach is the same, even if the detail differs.

Financial services and fintech

Financial services firms operate under some of the most demanding governance expectations in the UK economy. For FCA-regulated firms, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime places personal accountability on named individuals, and the Consumer Duty requires boards to evidence that their firms deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Fintech scale-ups face the added challenge of building regulator-ready governance while moving at start-up speed.

Common governance challenges include:

• Building a board and committee structure that will satisfy regulators and institutional investors.
• Finding non-executive directors with genuine regulatory, risk and audit experience.
• Documenting responsibilities clearly so that accountability is understood at every level.
• Overseeing operational resilience, financial crime controls and cyber risk.

How we help:

• Search and placement of independent NEDs and committee chairs with sector experience.
• Governance framework reviews, including terms of reference and matters reserved for the board.
• Fractional CFO and COO support for growing firms not yet ready for full-time hires.
• Secure board portals and data rooms suited to sensitive regulatory and investor information.

Healthcare and life sciences

Healthcare providers, medtech companies and life sciences businesses combine complex regulation with long development cycles and significant capital requirements. Boards must oversee clinical quality and patient safety, regulatory compliance with bodies such as the Care Quality Commission or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the commercial realities of bringing products and services to market.

Common governance challenges include:

• Balancing scientific or clinical leadership with commercial and financial discipline.
• Ensuring the board receives meaningful information on quality, safety and regulatory risk.
• Preparing for multiple funding rounds and the investor scrutiny that comes with them.
• Protecting intellectual property and sensitive data, including health data.

How we help:

• Recruiting non-executives who bring clinical governance, regulatory or commercialisation expertise.
• Designing board reporting that gives proportionate attention to quality and risk.
• Fundraising readiness support and virtual data room set-up for due diligence.
• Policy and risk framework development aligned with data protection obligations.

Technology and SaaS

Technology companies often grow faster than their governance. A founder-led business can go from a handful of people to a substantial team within a few years, raising several funding rounds along the way, while board practices remain informal. Investors increasingly expect a well-run board well before an exit is on the horizon.

Common governance challenges include:

• Moving from founder-only decision-making to a balanced board with independent challenge.
• Managing investor directors, observers and information rights across funding rounds.
• Overseeing cyber security, data protection and technology risk at board level.
• Planning leadership succession as the business outgrows its early team.

How we help:

• Independent chair and NED searches focused on scale-up experience.
• Fractional CFO, COO and CSO support to build commercial and financial infrastructure.
• Board meeting software implementation and board pack design.
• Investor readiness and exit planning, including data room preparation.

Professional and legal services

Law firms, accountancy practices, consultancies and other professional services firms are frequently structured as partnerships or LLPs, where owners are also the people doing the work. Governance has to reconcile partner autonomy with firm-wide strategy, and regulated professions must meet the requirements of bodies such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Common governance challenges include:

• Separating management of the firm from ownership and fee-earning.
• Introducing independent perspective into partner-led decision-making.
• Planning partner succession and retirement without disrupting client relationships.
• Managing confidentiality, professional risk and regulatory compliance.

How we help:

• Designing management board and partnership governance structures.
• Appointing independent non-executives or advisory board members.
• Succession planning and leadership coaching for managing partners.
• Governance and compliance reviews tailored to the firm’s regulatory environment.

Manufacturing and engineering

Manufacturing and engineering businesses are often long-established, owner-managed and asset-intensive. Their boards must oversee capital investment, supply chain resilience, health and safety, environmental performance and, increasingly, digital transformation of production and operations.

Common governance challenges include:

• Ensuring health and safety receives proper board-level attention and oversight.
• Managing supply chain risk, including obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for larger businesses.
• Making disciplined decisions about capital expenditure and automation.
• Responding to customer and lender expectations on ESG and carbon reduction.

How we help:

• Recruiting NEDs with operational, engineering or international trade experience.
• Risk management frameworks covering operational, supply chain and safety risk.
• ESG roadmaps proportionate to the size of the business.
• Fractional COO support and digital transformation advisory.

Retail and consumer

Retail and consumer brands operate in fast-moving markets with thin margins, seasonal cash flow and rapidly changing customer behaviour. Boards need to keep pace with shifts between physical and online channels, consumer protection requirements and growing scrutiny of sourcing and sustainability claims.

Common governance challenges include:

• Overseeing cash flow, stock and working capital through seasonal peaks and troughs.
• Managing consumer data responsibly across e-commerce and marketing platforms.
• Ensuring environmental and ethical claims can be substantiated.
• Bringing digital and e-commerce expertise onto the board.

How we help:

• Placement of NEDs with consumer, digital and brand-building experience.
• Fractional finance and operations leadership.
• Policy reviews covering data protection, supply chain and sustainability.
• Growth strategy and fundraising support for challenger brands.

Family businesses

Family businesses bring long-term thinking and strong values, but they also face governance issues that other companies do not. Family relationships, ownership and management overlap, and decisions about succession, dividends and employment of family members can become difficult without clear structures.

Common governance challenges include:

• Separating family matters from business decisions.
• Planning ownership and leadership succession between generations.
• Bringing in outside perspective without undermining family control.
• Aligning shareholders who are, and are not, active in the business.

How we help:

• Designing board structures and family charters that clarify roles and decision rights.
• Appointing an independent chair or non-executive to provide balance.
• Succession planning and coaching for the next generation of leaders.
• Exit and ownership transition planning, including management buyout options.

Charities and not-for-profits

Trustees of charities in England and Wales have legal duties overseen by the Charity Commission, and many boards use the Charity Governance Code as a framework for good practice. Trustee boards are often made up of committed volunteers who may not have prior board experience, while income pressures and public scrutiny continue to grow.

Common governance challenges include:

• Recruiting trustees with the right mix of skills, including finance, legal and digital.
• Clarifying the boundary between the trustee board and the executive team.
• Overseeing safeguarding, financial controls and reputational risk.
• Improving board diversity so that trustees reflect the communities served.

How we help:

• Trustee recruitment and board skills audits.
• Governance reviews and board effectiveness evaluations.
• Board diversity and inclusion consulting.
• Induction and training for new trustees and chairs.

Our approach across every sector

Whatever your industry, we start by understanding your business, your stakeholders and the regulatory environment you operate in. We then match you with advisers and directors whose experience is relevant to your situation.

Some things hold true in every sector. Directors of UK companies share the same core duties under the Companies Act 2006, including the duty to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole. Boards everywhere need reliable management information, a clear view of their principal risks and the confidence to challenge the executive team constructively. And as Companies House reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 take effect, every company needs to be confident that its filings, registers and identity verification arrangements are in order.

Sector expertise matters because it shortens the learning curve. An adviser who already understands how a regulator thinks, how investors in your market assess risk or how a trustee board differs from a commercial one can focus on your specific challenges from day one, rather than spending the first months of an engagement getting up to speed.

Explore our full range of board advisory services, learn more about how we work, or try our governance scorecard to see where your board stands today.