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Profile of Peter Cunliffe
(Managing Director, Flex FD Limited)

Peter qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983, having trained in Birmingham with one of the then ‘Big 4’ accountancy firms, Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

Since qualifying, Peter has worked in various finance and accounting roles for a wide spectrum of businesses, both in terms of size (£3m up to £1.2bn turnover) and industry sector (including retail, engineering, steel stockholding, laboratory analysis and specialty chemicals).

His early positions were in large blue-chip companies, roles which gave him a full understanding of the importance of pertinent, current management information and the need for strict financial disciplines to augment performance and safeguard assets.

For the last 13 years Peter has headed up finance departments in several SMEs, giving him a sympathetic insight into the role of the finance function in an owner-managed business environment, and the need for that function to embody empathy towards the commercial needs of the business.

Peter came up with the idea of Flex FD after talking to potential end-users, financial intermediaries and providers of a similar type of outsourced service. As he says:

‘A growing company reaches a stage when it suddenly requires the injection of a degree of financial expertise, whether it be in connection with expansion strategy, funding or the need for more sophisticated management information. In most cases, the business does not need (and in many cases cannot afford) a full-time finance executive, but the owners still need to have up-to-date information on how their business is performing. This is where Flex FD can step in and provide the flexible, experienced resource which is the most cost-effective solution for the company at that stage of its development, at the same time giving the owner-manager the time to concentrate on running their business to maximum effect.’

Peter lives in Solihull with his wife, Frances, and children, Laura and John.