Cyril Freedman
Born in 1945, after further education at Brighton College of Art & Design where he studied graphic design, typography and printing as well as the history of European art & architecture, Cyril Freedman began his career in publishing and marketing working for Transworld Publishers (Corgi & Bantam Books). He spent a year with an operational marketing consultancy developing Help Charity Christmas cards and managing the Bee Gees fan club before joining the London Press Exchange (now Leo Burnett) advertising group as manager of their business research and information centre. In 1970 he established an advertising agency, CWF Advertising, with two partners which acted for clients including Imperial Tobacco, Bulmers Cider, Saab Cars, Allied Breweries and Burberry and brand development work for Unilever, Beecham and Kodak. The agency was financed by Pentos plc and after it was sold in 1974 he went to work for Halls Homes & Gardens Limited a Pentos subsidiary, first as Sales & Marketing Director and late as Chairman and CEO. In 1977 Halls won the Institute of Marketing Award for outstanding achievements in UK marketing for its successful development of the packaged greenhouse market. Between 1979 and 1982 as a main board director of Pentos plc he was responsible for the development and marketing of all their consumer businesses including Dillons Bookshops, Athena Art Shops and various book publishing and children’s games businesses. In 1982 Cyril formed a private consulting company and over the next 6 years invested in and advised or managed a variety of listed and private companies including Armour Trust plc, Deeko plc and Serco Ryan Limited, which he acquired as an MBI from Alcan.
In 1987 he was invited to join Apax Partners & Co Ventures Limited as a director responsible for their consumer facing investments including Stead & Simpson Group. Oasis Stores, Aroma Cafes and Marr Taverns a 220 outlet chain of pubs. In 1989 he led the Apax investment in a start-up of The New Covent Garden Soup Company, which investment he managed until 1995 when he left Apax to buy into S Daniels plc a £2.5m market cap family controlled listed food manufacturing and processing group, becoming Deputy Chairman & Chief Executive in June 1995 and Executive Chairman in April 1997. Daniels subsequently sold all of its original businesses in dried fruit, coffee and powdered beverages and bakery ingredients focusing on building a group of fresh chilled food and drink businesses. Daniels became a market leader in quality chilled fresh foods supplied to the food service sector with sales of £55m and profits of £3.6m having acquired Johnsons Fresh Juices in 1996 and New Covent Garden Soup Company late in 1997. In December 2002 Daniels was sold to Singapore Food Industries for a total of £36m.
Following that sale he reduced his working commitments to a small number of non executive directorships and advisory roles .Between 2003 -2008 he was Chairman of Lloyd Maunder Limited, a family owned leading processor of specialist west country poultry with 17 quality butchers shops orchestrating the sale of the main processing business in 2008 , from 2004-2008 Chairman and an investor in LighterLife, a fast growing business offering weight loss programmes for obese people , and a non executive director of 412 store shoe chain Stead & Simpson Group until 2007. He is currently a non executive director of David Morris International, a Bond Street Jeweller where he advises on corporate and international development , he also has a small portfolio of start-up investments. He has been closely involved with the development of the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance and Economics at Cranfield University since it’s inception and is a founder member of the Advisory Board. He was a visiting lecturer at Nottingham University Business School for 10 years until 2005 and also lectured regularly on start up and fast growth businesses at London Business School between 1994 and 2004. He is a guest lecturer on the Cranfield School of Management MBA programme and a panel member of the Cranfield Upstart Programme to evaluate entrepreneurs who are on the pitching for finance on the mini (youth: 19-30 year olds) Dragons’ Den. Cyril has also been on the judging panel of the European Business Plan of the Year Competition (EBPYC) in 2010 and 2011.