Simon Walters ACA, Managing Director -

Simon qualified in 1986 and joined the corporate finance department of Stoy Hayward, where he rose to become Manager. In 1990 he left to join Fuller Peiser, a national property consultancy, as Finance Partner at the age of 27.

In 1992 he became Finance Director of the privately-held Molyneux property investment and venture capital group, whose interests included 52% of USM-listed Molyneux Estates plc. In 1997 he took a similar role at Shani, a fully-listed UK clothing manufacturer with head office in Watford and factories in Yorkshire and eastern Europe.

In 1999 he was invited by Andrew Cohen, CEO of Betterware prior to its high-profile £127m sale, to run Wood Hall Securities, his private equity group. Simon managed funds of £25m which were invested in a range of private high-growth businesses and a significant property portfolio, and then used the profits to reacquire Betterware for Cohen.

Simon also sat as a Non-Executive Director on the board of Bilston & Battersea Enamels plc, in which Wood Hall held a 29.99% stake, was finance director of the Fish! chain of restaurants after Wood Hall bought it out of receivership, and was a director of NetFM, an internet radio station for which he headed a consortium of backers.

Simon’s expertise is focussed on property, leisure, healthcare, environmental businesses and investment companies. At FD Solutions he has:

• Helped one member of a family business to negotiate a de-merger.
• Assisted the turnaround of a waste management business that resulted in it trading profitably and reducing its borrowings.
• Helped a new magazine to become established by careful cost control and accessing the government’s Small Firm’s Loan Guarantee Scheme.