Fellow
Ian Parker
Independent Executive, Operator
Ian Parker – IFT Fellow
A highly experienced Chief Executive / Managing Director / Operational Transformation Leader with a successful background leading a variety of engineering SMEs through growth, change and simplification for family, corporate and private equity owners.
Collaborative approach to successful business leadership, guiding management teams and engaging with key business stakeholders, OEMs & 3rd parties at all levels to deliver sustainable business outcomes.
Executive Management and Divisional boardroom experience in UK and international product and component supply businesses: SMEs £5m - £150m (French Division $1bn), single - multi-site, 80 – 1,000 employees with plants in UK, Europe, USA and Asia
- Turnaround PE backed business enabling investor to achieve exit
- Restored banking relationship for three private family owned businesses
- Secured private equity finance for high technology family business
- Supported exit sales of family businesses to private equity and corporate buyers
- Managed exit and closure of two French plants, supported closure of two UK plants
- Planning of three plant "lift & shift" consolidations (UK to Europe; two tier 1 automotive component suppliers and a high volume packaging supplier)
- Led transformation and sale of two family businesses to PE
Ian stepped in at a difficult time and quickly brought order and control. He immediately engaged with the board and the management team and gave the Company’s bank the reassurance that was needed. His pragmatic approach meant the family had clear visibility of the options available allowing us to make informed and considered decisions. He provided valuable support to the board and family through a sale process which was challenging and protracted while ensuring the support of the bank was maintained. Ian was instrumental in the family achieving the right outcome.
A critical requirement for our business when Ian joined was to improve stakeholder management, most notably our bank. This situation became even more critical once the impact of the COVID-19 crisis began to emerge. Without the exemplary stewardship and guidance of Ian I do not believe we would have been successful in gaining full support of our bank through the covid crisis or have been successful in gaining the investment from SCF Partners
Ian came in to run one of our operating companies at a sensitive time. He rapidly understood the demands and pulled the business together before aiding the transition to new long term leadership
I appointed Ian to restructure and eventually close a loss making French company. Ian completed this challenging project on time, considerably under cost budget, maintained the support of the workforce and did not disrupt customer build programmes
Ian put his soul into changing the long-ingrained company culture. He put the customer at the heart of the organisation and through lean led tremendous improvements in quality, availability and service
Ian took control of a difficult situation quickly for us. He quickly gained the trust and respect of the rest of the team and took the decisions which others had avoided. He kept us fully informed and set the business on a good strategic course before we sold it
Ian quickly realised that regaining the confidence of independent distributors was the key to sales growth and improved profit performance. He supported the regional sales teams with local distributor meetings and won back their support for the new business plan.