Cranfield School of Management

David has been involved with BGP since 1999, and is responsible for delivering much of the marketing content.

Having trained in consumer goods advertising, he has been personally involved in the founding and sale of two businesses. David has served on the faculty of Cranfield School of Management, Imperial College and, as visiting faculty, at INSEAD and London Business School. He has written extensively on the marketing issues faced by owner managed and growing businesses, as well as corporate venturing by established businesses.

David was educated at the universities of Oxford and Aix-en-Provence, and holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. He has an active consulting practice and in recent years he has worked with senior managers in Unilever - both at corporate and operating company board levels, Shell, Cadbury Schweppes and Diageo.

Bruce is a Lecturer at the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship at Cranfield. He also directs the BGP and the Centre's programme of Master Classes.  He works in the field of Global Entrepreneurship, and with the owner-managers of SMEs as they grow and develop their businesses locally and internationally.

As an entrepreneur, Bruce had a 17 year career founding and operating commercial radio stations in New Zealand. After selling this business in 2005, he then went on to complete his PhD in Entrepreneurship at Auckland University of Technology in 2008. Bruce also holds an MBA from Henley (UK), a bachelor's in Broadcasting Communications and post graduate qualifications in Business Research and Property Studies. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Chartered Management Institute and an Academic Fellow of the Association of International Accountants.

Marihelen graduated from the University of Maryland and went on to buy and build up a number of small companies in London, including a PR consultancy, a publishing house specialising in trade magazines, an advertising agency and an industrial film making company. She sold her commercial interests in 1980 and purchased a sheep and beef farm in Somerset. In 1982 she purchased a nearby soft fruit farm, and managed both farms until 1986 when she sold up the farming interests and moved to the Milton Keynes area.

Since 1986 she has had a commercial stake in a number of local companies including a delicatessen, jeweller, travel agency and an engineering firm.

Marihelen is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management and has worked on BGP and related programmes for over fifteen years. She acts as a business consultant for a number of local companies and until recently ran two BGP Club groups.

Mark Kelly is a qualified accountant who worked in financial services before moving into the IT sector. He has considerable experience in raising finance for growth, having acted as finance director in a rapidly-expanding specialist IT contracting and training provider. Today he runs his own consultancy based in the Peak District.

Mark is an experienced counsellor on BGP, holds an MBA from Cranfield and runs two very successful Business Growth Club groups.

In the last 30 years Jerry has started and grown four successful companies.

Since the mid-eighties, Jerry concentrated on the telecommunications market. This in turn led him to form Telecom Design Ltd in 1987 with an investment of £1000. TDL was a design consultancy specialising in PTT approvals for the deregulated telecommunications market, the IP in TDL was sold to a customer in 1998.

Paul has over 20 years writing, consulting, training and commercial experience within a wide range of business sectors and company sizes. Paul is a qualified accountant and has worked as a consultant and Investment Review Director for a UK Venture Capital business. In 1998 as group finance director of Adval Group plc he was part of the team, which took their software company on to the Alternative Investment Market. Previously Paul has been the Finance Director of several owner managed businesses and has started up and sold other businesses.

Currently he is working as a non executive director for several owner/managed companies. Paul also facilitates a Business Growth Club group.

Dan founded Fresh Tracks a training and events business in the early 90s. Since then he has grown a portfolio of business and property interests.After participating in BGP in 2006 he achieved his goal of taking a three month sabbatical. He now splits his time between his own businesses, non-exec roles, his wife and three children and his passion for flying anything from paraglyders to helicopters.

More than 20 years ago, Paul founded a residential property development company which he has managed and grown profitably, and which he continues to own.

Paul also has experience of non executive director roles, and coaching boards of directors to achieve sustained profit increases, in several SME companies

Paul was a director of River Island Clothing Company Ltd for many years, during which time the business achieved substantial sales and profits growth in its chain of retail shops. He was involved in two start up businesses within the group of companies associated with River Island.

Carol runs a coaching and consulting business. She works with Managing Directors in organisations going through change to improve their performance. While historically her clients have been FTSE 100, over the last six years Carol has mainly worked with leaders of one to ten million turnover businesses in a diverse range of sectors. She works at Cranfield School of Management on the Business Growth and Development programme and runs an entrepreneur's club for ambitious owner managers. She sits as a non executive director on several companies' boards, including one that she co-founded with her husband which does website developments (www.e-nablers.com).

Carol’s background includes working in British Steel, the Department of Trade and Industry, KPMG Management Consulting, the AA, Centrica, Henley College and The Thinking Partnership. She has moved from economic forecasting to strategy and marketing. Her achievements include setting up theaa.com, having responsibility for delivering 1,000,000 car insurance policies and 500,000 home insurance policies, telling Michael Hesletine that he wasn’t good enough (!)  and assessing senior management at Virgin Media. She did the Cranfield MBA in 1998/99 and received the Strategy Prize and holds a Cambridge MA. She is a Chartered member of the CIPD and is accredited in various psychometric tools.

David practices as a management consultant and coach, specialising in helping entrepreneurs and senior managers in organisations undergoing rapid change. He has been involved in all stages of corporate development, from start-up and turn-round, through fast growth to acquisition and succession, in firms with a marketing bias in many industry sectors at home and overseas.

His experience also includes roles as a director of quoted and private groups, an independent director appointed by investors and an investor himself.

His special interests are planning, controlling working capital and family business issues. He is the honorary treasurer of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

David also facilitates a Business Growth Club group.

After sixteen years with Marks and Spencer, Viv started her own company, Qi Associates, to provide management training and development, and human resources consultancy. Her consultancy work is aimed at growing companies, helping them to develop and implement people systems e.g. recruitment and selection, training, performance management, dealing with difficult employees, grievances and dismissal.

Viv has worked on BGP since 1992. Ever mindful of the future, Viv also owns and runs two other companies, both involved in property development, and which continue to grow profitably.

Viv also facilitates a Business Growth Club group.

Mike is director of MD Consulting, a management consultancy that provides consultancy and interim management services for UK and international clients. Before setting up MD Consulting in 1991 he was a senior consultant in Business and Technology Strategy with PA Consulting Group. Mike has managed assignments in marketing and business development, innovation and change management for companies in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. His clients have included Government Departments (MOD/DERA, DTI, DETR) and firms in the automotive, communications, electronics, engineering, food and healthcare sectors.

Prior to consultancy Mike held senior management positions in marketing, IT and product development with the Gestetner Group and Kroy Europe.

Mike’s business interests include Stairguide, a Millennium Product company, and M Carriers, a specialist transport company, where he is a director.

After gaining experience in senior marketing and business planning roles, David completed 12 years in managing director positions before founding his own management consulting practice in 2001.

He works with owner managed businesses to create and realise enterprise value. He has direct experience of working in a growing range of sectors including the graphic arts, paper and packaging, marketing services, bicycles and land/property.

A Chartered Marketer by training, David is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and of the Institute of Paper, Print and Packaging.

Graham’s background is in mechanical engineering. He started his career with Lucas Aerospace then had spells with GEC and NEI (now part of Rolls Royce Group).

Since moving to Cranfield in 1986, Graham has concentrated on service management. He has written several books on service management and founded the Cranfield Service Operations Research Club, which drew support from a wide range of service organisations.

Graham's current research interests include the strategic management of call centres, the design & delivery of service solutions; the links between stress, the management of overloads, and quality performance; and the management of professionals in high volume service operations.

Graham has carried out a wide range of consultancy assignments including supply chain management improvements for a food manufacturer, a customer service strategy for a utility, and strategy development for a charity and for a service division of a European manufacturing company.

Liz is passionate about growing businesses. She holds several non-executive appointments and has advised many multi-nationals on corporate culture, managing change and developing their leaders. She now specialises in advising and coaching the top teams of SME’s. She has worked on BGP since it first started and also runs a Masterclass on Leadership. She has an MBA from London Business School and is co-author of "Growing Your Business" and author of "The Essence of Change".