Steve Magowan

Starting out in audit, the insight I gained into the workings of a variety of companies inspired me to change tack, and I quickly qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant. I worked in financial accounting and finance business partner roles at business unit, division and group levels and internationally.

I spent time beyond finance as Master Production Scheduler in a factory during a crisis and as Project Manager of a first-of-its-kind wireless network installation for a global hotel group, and I undertook a lean business leadership MBA. I started an advisory firm to help start-ups to get to market and larger organisations to implement new business models, and this opened strategic and tactical roles.

I invested and held CFO positions in high growth potential start-ups. I worked on acquisitions and designed and implemented new ways of working to improve performance in large national and multi-national organisations. I worked with Boards to envision desired future states from disparate, complex elements, and with Executive Teams to build their execution competence muscle and create effective execution and benefits realisation management processes.

I was awarded the Chartered Director qualification by the Institute of Directors. There are just 14 of us here in Wales and only 1,700 Chartered Directors worldwide. As an independent Chartered Director today, my focus is on determining whether and advising how an organisation's governance may be improved to enhance its business performance.

This journey spans more than 20 companies on three continents. It has been guided by a passion for effective corporate governance based on clear thinking, and a belief that learning starts with experience and knowledge but is all about application and mastery and is lifelong.

I’ve applied my learning to creating the SUCCEED governance system to address the issue of organisations not achieving their goals, and we continuously refresh it from the latest global thinking and experience. Development of SUCCEED is guided by three principles:

CLARITY - the quality of being clear and easy to understand

IMPETUS - something that encourages a particular activity or makes it more effective

MOMENTUM - the force that keeps an event developing after it has started

My value to clients is in applying the SUCCEED system to diagnosing their challenges (clarity), my knowledge of an array of next moves to resolve them (impetus), and the initiative, tools and hands-on capability to deliver quickly to help them succeed (momentum).

Along with expert UK-based associates, through our network of appropriately experienced and genuinely interested external support developed over the last decade, we are able to bring like-minded practitioners from many fields to assignments almost anywhere in the world to help you.