About Virtus One
An experienced leader of customer-led organisations, I learned that the decisions which shape a business are rarely technical — they are human. Virtus One is that space: somewhere to meet them with courage and candour, and to build value designed to outlast the cycle it was made in.
Book a free 20-minute callVirtus One is named for a standard rather than a service. The Romans used virtus to mean excellence of character — not what a person achieved, but what they were made of when it counted.
That is the premise of the whole practice: what happens inside a leader is eventually visible in everything the organisation does. Work on the inside, and the outside follows.
Same three as home
02 — One mind
Good decisions are a practice, not a talent.
Advisory & pricing →Customer-led organisations
Before 2001
Operator
Operational, customer-driven roles — learned from the floor upwards.
2001 — 2013
Director to chief executive
Twelve years inside Thomas Cook, the UK's vertically integrated travel business — ending as chief executive of a £4bn retail division delivering £56m profit with 9,000 colleagues.
Held leadership positions ranging from Product Director and Retail Director to Managing Director and Chief Executive of the retail and omni-channel divisions.
After 2013
PLC chief executive
An early-stage technology portfolio and investment fund, and the governance that came with public markets — fundraising and deployment into growth prospects and talent.
Since 2020
Adviser · NED · investor
Leisure, travel, technology and sustainability investments — alongside the leadership advisory practice.
Values under pressure
The world needs leaders who hold their values when the pressure is on — the courage to take the long view, and the discipline to keep taking it when short-term gain argues otherwise. That is what sustainability means in a business: growth and quality that build lasting prosperity — not at the expense of the planet, or of the people who deliver it. Most businesses lose it in the decisions that felt too small to argue about.
You will not be managed, sold to, or handled. The value of an outside voice is that it can say the thing your executive team cannot — and then help you act on it.
Free · 20 minutes · no pitch