Board Of Directors

Appointed

Appointed to CEO in April 2023.

Skills and experience

Master of Civil Engineering and Business Management.

25+ years’ experience of B2B/C product, Service and Distribution experience. He has held a number of senior operational roles within the industrial sector within the UK, Europe and globally and has a proven track record in delivering commercial and transformational change within these international businesses. Until January 2023 he spent 7 years with RS Group plc (formerly Electrocomponents plc) of which the last three years he served as Group COO with full P&L accountability across Americas, EMEA and APAC. Prior to this he spent 10 years with Brammer (now Rubix) and eight years with Hagemeyer NV (now Rexel).

External appointments

None.

Board Committees

Member of the AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committee.

• Other committees by invitation.

Appointed

November 2018.

Skills and experience

Qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now PwC) in 1991.

Spent 27 years working as a turnaround and restructuring professional, 20 years with PwC prior to taking Partner roles at Baker Tilly (now RSM International) from 2008 to 2013 and FRP Advisory from 2013 to 2018. At both Baker Tilly and FRP he played a key role in the success and expansion at both firms. Russell’s experience in effecting change both in terms of operational improvement and cash management should serve the Group well given the focus in each of these areas in 2019 and beyond.

External appointments

None.

Board Committees

Member of the AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committee and other committees by invitation.

Appointed

June 2020 as Independent Director, and Non-Executive Chair from August 2020.

Skills and experience

Roger is a highly successful businessman and entrepreneur, with a strong record of delivering shareholder value.  He was Managing Director of Oliver Ashworth for 18 years before IPO and subsequent sale to Saint-Gobain, and won The Sunday Times AIM Non-Executive Director of the Year award in 2017 for his Chairmanship of Avingtrans plc, a precision engineering business.

External appointments

• Non-Executive Chair of Hargreaves Services plc, Avingtrans plc and Brand Architekts Group plc
• Senior Non-Executive Director of Tribal Group plc
• Non-Executive Director of Proteome Sciences plc, Augean plc and British Smaller Companies VCT II plc

Board Committees

Chair of Nomination Committee and a member of the Audit, Remuneration and AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committees.

Appointed

March 2022.

Skills and experience

James has had successful roles in listed and private equity fund management, originally starting out with 3i plc. Over his 30 year career, having sat on 20 different boards, he has focused on driving shareholder value and has gained experience covering fund management and investing, strategy and governance, M&A, audit and consultancy. Most recently he worked with Hanover Investors and, prior to this, James spent twelve years with the Volantis team under the umbrellas of Lombard Odier, Henderson and Gartmore. He trained as an ACA with Deloitte.

External appointments

Chapel Down Group Plc and Maitland Capital Limited.

Board Committees

Member of the Audit, Remuneration and AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committees.

Appointed

March 2022.

Skills and experience

Ailsa has held a number of lead-operational management roles including at TNT and Brammer Buck and Hickman. Until 2019, Ailsa was Chief Operating Officer for the UK, Ireland and Iceland territories at Brammer Buck and Hickman, the UK subsidiary of Rubix Group, Europe’s largest supplier of industrial maintenance, repair and overhaul products and services. In 2019, Ailsa joined HSS Hire Services, Scotland, one of the UK’s largest equipment rental companies, as Managing Director and, in early 2021 she took over as Managing Director for ABird and Apex Power Solutions, two service business parts of HSS Group.  Currently, Ailsa is CEO Europe for CES Global, a division of CES Power.

Ailsa has a deep understanding of the industrials distribution sector, including within e-commerce where she has a wealth of digital transformation expertise driving revenue growth through e-commerce strategies. 

External appointments

No other Board appointments.  

Executive role as described above.

Board Committees

Member of the Audit, Remuneration and AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committees.

Appointed

January 2023.

Skills and experience

Stuart is a Chartered Accountant. He was Senior Partner for EY in Yorkshire and the North East and specialised in audit. He was also responsible for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Programme. He retired from EY in 2017. He served as a NED and Audit Committee Chair at Clipper Logistics plc until it was acquired in May 2022.

Stuart is currently a NED and Audit Committee Chair at both Humber & North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Vp plc, and is an Advisor to Panmure Gordon.

External appointments

Non-Executive Director of Vp plc.

Non-Executive Director of Humber & North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

Board Committees

Member of the Audit, Nomination, Remuneration and AIM Compliance and Corporate Governance Committees.

Following Nigel Richens’ retirement Stuart will become Chair of the Audit Committee.