I have served and am at present serving as Chairman in an interesting variety of companies. 

In September 2007 I was asked to take the Chair of Baylis Brands plc www.baylisbrands.co.uk when Trevor Baylis was made Life President. I originally joined the Board in April 2006 when the Company raised funds by listing on Plus Markets. The company exists to help inventors by initially qualifying their idea through a patent and prior art search coupled with a commercial opinion. A fee is charged for the service. If the invention has commercial merit we then select companies from over 300 with whom we have a relationship and seek to licence the idea. In a very small number of cases we will start up a company to exploit the idea.

From September 2000 until June 2003 I served as the Chairman  at keycom plc. I led the company through its development period in a most difficult funding environment . Despite the environment we were able to raise private equity to fund the acquisition of the assets of failed companies in the sector and to fund increases in working capital. The company is listed on OFEX and continues to be supported by Institutional Investors as well as private individuals. This was my most complete Chairman's role to date and I was well supported by an experienced non-executive Peter Osborne who joined the Board when we accepted investment from a fund he represented. The role has involved leading the creation of a strategy which aligned the interests of the Investors and the executives, improving relations with the company's brokers JM Finn, mentoring the managing director and developing the corporate governance. 

In July 1999 I joined the Convergence Group as Chairman of the UK based subsidiary which supplied management, engineering and project management resources to other European based sister companies. The role is strategic in nature. The main project was  the provision of competitive telecommunications in Athens, a Telehouse operation also in Athens  and a connecting submarine cable down the Aegean sea. The funding of the project so far has been from a private investor. My active involvement ceased in 2000

At Woolfall plc I took the role of Chairman in May 1999. This was in part to prepare the Company for entry to OFEX which was achieved in the summer of that year. An originally owner managed company, with the other board director being the wife of the Chief Executive, it was a challenging role. I learnt a great deal and feel that I added value. The company was focussed on the marketing publishing sector serving the IT and telecommunications industry. In reaction to the downturn in the market in 2000 and 2001 the company reduced its cost base and diversified into media ownership. I gradually reduced my involvement during 2001 as we jointly agreed that I was not able sustain my added value to the reconstructed company in its new market area.

My first role was as Chairman of a subsidiary of the Fairy Group in 1980 which was dedicated to the manufacture of Nuclear Power fuel rods. This " internal" position had no direct contact with investors but related to the main board of Fairy. It was my first experience of formally running monthly meetings from a non-executive position and was a good grounding in a sheltered position. Clearly corporate governance in the quality control area was critical given the application.