Thank you for visiting my website.

I have worked in the financial services industry, in one capacity or another, since 1980.  I am currently a non-executive director of a number of listed investment companies and served as a  chairman of an educational charity in Scotland. I provide some consultancy advice under the trading name of StockBridge Advisers.

I enjoy the ‘plurality’ of my activities, having given up full time work in 2014 – although I was always plural in what I did as a corporate finance adviser, with a number of clients’ interests or corporate transactions to be considered at any given time.

The purpose of this website is to give some background information on me, what I do and to share some information on things I have encountered over my career in corporate finance. I am not providing financial advice in doing so, but if the issues discussed are of interest to those involved in capital markets and can help, particularly before formal advice is sought, then a purpose is being served by the jottings.

I do not apologise for having strong views on some issues. I was trained to analyse and challenge situations, even when the situation had been met before, as no two situations are exactly alike. The more analysis and challenge the greater likelihood of addressing the situation correctly, and providing the appropriate advice for what is required. Often the most difficult advice to give is ‘not to do something’. A natural default for many professional advisers and promoters of a project is to ‘make something happen’, not least as this is how advisory rewards are earned.

I’ve been fortunate in my career that the natural default has more often been trying to give the right advice under the circumstances. That was not always the more popular option, especially when advice was perceived as unwelcome by the client.  Most successful people start from a relatively positive disposition to a challenge, otherwise they wouldn’t proceed, far less succeed.  It is, of course, important to be positive but it also important to be realistic and to be aware of pitfalls too, rather than simply focussing on what success might bring. The consequences of failure can be more significant than success.

‘StockBridge’ is named as I hope, in what I write, to help bridge the gap between what an entity is trying to do and what it might face in stock markets more generally.  There is no substitute for good, independent financial advice, when it is required. Anyone embarking on transactions or making investments should seek such advice, which is not what this website purports to do or to provide.