Consultants
Phil Riman
Phil is an entrepreneur, investor, deal strategist and highly experienced CEO. He has founded a number of companies, worked in private equity and was CEO of the White & Black Group for over 12 years, a business he grew from inception through to its sale to a stock-exchange listed group in 2018. Phil has served as a trustee of various charities, as a non-executive director of many companies and as a deal-strategy adviser to institutional investors, companies, family offices and a number of celebrities and TV personalities.
In his professional life, Phil has advised on hundreds of M&A deals, venture capital fundraisings and private equity transactions, many cross-border. Phil’s experience spans almost every industrial sector from pharmaceuticals and technology to the food and fashion industries. He advises both investors and investees, from Japanese conglomerates to private investment funds, on deals ranging from £50m to many billions, recent examples being the sale of Nisbets to Bunzl in 2024 and the investment by Alchemy Partners in Barons Eden Group in 2025.
Phil studied at University College London (where he won the Professor Dolley Prize in Modern History) and the College of Law (LPC, Distinction). He qualified as a solicitor in 1996 and for many years worked for global private equity house, 3i, advising on transactions including many technology deals in Silicon Valley. Amongst other roles, Phil is a director of the AI-enabled home automation and energy saving company, Tewke. Phil is also a member of the Corporate Finance Faculty of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Sir John Crabtree CVO OBE
John is a vastly experienced businessman, non-executive director and strategist . He was Chairman of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 Organising Committee and Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands until 2024, having been appointed by Her Majesty the Queen in 2017.
John is Chairperson of Tara Developments Group, Brandauer Holdings Limited, Glenn Howells Architects and Real Estate Investors Plc (amongst others).
John’s previous roles include: President of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Director of Advantage West Midlands (a regional development agency), Senior Partner of Wragge & Co (now Gowlings) and Director of Worcester Warriors RFC. A former winner of the coveted UK Lawyer of the Year Award from Legal Business, John has also received a number of life time achievement awards.
John was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to sport and to the community in the West Midlands and was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours. John holds honorary doctorates from the University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University and Aston University.
Liz Ireson
Liz has over 25 years experience in training, performance coaching, communications and project management. With a background in teaching and marketing, she helps leaders develop their organisations into high-performance environments by aligning team culture with business purpose.
Liz has led numerous complex projects in support of business transformation, many of them focussed on brand development and the built environment. Key examples include brand repositioning, workplace-environment transformation and the implementation of personnel development strategies. Liz is also a specialist in dyslexia and uses this both in educational and business settings.
Liz is a graduate of Royal Holloway, London University and holds a Masters Degree from Warwick University, together with a PGCE, a PG Cert. (Distinction) and AMBDA (Distinction).