Simon Wakeman
Experienced operational leader specialising in working with founders to grow resilient, high-performing businesses.
Simon's Bio
With more than 25 years of experience as a COO, MD, and founder, Simon Wakeman helps ambitious founders navigate the challenging transition from start-up to scale-up.
Career Highlights
- Led UK-listed technology services group TPXimpact plc as COO, scaling revenue from £31.5m to £83m and headcount from 361 to 700 in just over two years.
- Grew digital transformation agency Deeson Group from 15 to 40 people, achieving 95% revenue growth in four years with net profit consistently above 29%.
- Significant buy and sell-side M&A experience, including integrations.
- Co-founded and launched conversational AI business GreenShoot Labs (now OpenDialog.ai), successfully exiting to AIM-listed The Panoply plc.
- Professionally qualified in change management, coaching, OKRs, marketing and communications.
- Developed the B3 framework® in 2023, providing a toolkit to help founders build brilliant businesses.
Notable Client Work
- Successful long growth strategy and implementation engagements with multiple US and UK-based agency and consultancy businesses.
- Took on a failing 30 person SaaS platform business as fractional COO, developed and implemented new business strategy, major restructuring and putting a new leadership team in place to take the business forward sustainably.
- As fractional Transformation Director in a tech agency, Simon designed and implemented new business and people processes, building trust with the team and delivering operational efficiencies quickly.
- Team coaching and facilitation delivering united, high-performing teams with clearly defined roles and goals.
Simon's expertise
Working with Simon
Simon's Personality
Simon's Ideal Client
- Ambitious but struggling to lead their business to the next stage
- Wanting to take a structured approach to growth
- Seeking to improve leadership performance
- Values a blend of strategic thinking and rapid iterative implementation
Why Work With Simon
- 25+ years of diverse experience across sectors and business types
- Strong leadership track record of growth in MD and COO roles
- Experienced fractional executive, consultant, advisor and coach
How Simon Can Enhance Your Business
- Help identify root causes of underperformance and address them fast
- Design new structures, processes and systems to enable growth
- Taking a generalist perspective to problem solving
- Working with leaders and teams at all levels to deliver improvements and change
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