Founder Arthur Kemp says “I have been looking for high quality driven individuals who can offer their skills and who can put their knowledge to practical use within in our business.”
“It is important for me that we have the best possible CA product out there and the customer experience is the centre to it all. I am really pleased that Jo Haigh has joined us, not only does she bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the business, but she is a great person too.”
Jo Haigh
Jo Haigh is a partner in fds Corporate Finance, with bases in London, Birmingham and Yorkshire, and a partner in the fds knowledge, a specialist training and development business.
An experienced dealmaker, Jo specialises in putting together the right deal at the right time and in the right format for growing businesses throughout the country. She has bought and sold over 300 companies in the last 20 years specialising in owner managed companies.
She is a regular presenter for the Institute of Directors on corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions.
As a Partner of fds knowledge, a highly successful training and consultancy organisation she founded at the start of the 90’s, she has held circa 40 + Non-Executive Roles over that period in companies across the country and helped many businesses through successful transactions. She has sold three of her own companies and undertaken two personal MBO’s.
Awards/titles/achievements
- Winner of The Sunday Times NED of the Year award in association with Peel Hunt
- Winner of the Outperformance Award 2012 from Vistage, awarded for going above and beyond as a speaker.
- Special presenter on the Business Class TV special, filmed with James Caan of Dragons' Den, which aired 24th October 2012.
- Finalist for the 2011 IoD Awards in the Business Advisor Category
- Finalist in the 2011 Sue Ryder Women of Achievement Awards
- Published a book for the FT called Finance for Non-Financial Managers
- RealBusiness.co.uk columnist
- On the advisory board of the Angelus Advisory Group
- Part of the judging panel for the Growing Business Awards 2010
- Finalist for the Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards 2010 in the Corporate Leader category.
- Named in the Yorkshire Post top 100 entrepreneurs 2010.
- Finalist to final 3 stage in the Women of the Future Awards – Mentor of the Year category 2009
- Winner of IoD Business Advisor of the Year 2009 and 2006
- Nominated for Financial News’ Top 100 Most Influential Women in Finance 2009.
- Entered into the 2008 edition of “Who’s Who of Britain’s Business Elite”.
- Finalist in the First Women CBI Awards 2007, in the Finance category.
- Voted ‘Star Speaker’ and ‘Outperforming Speaker’ at the Vistage Annual Speakers Awards 2008 2007, 2006 and 2005.
- Jo is an Ambassador of Huddersfield along with Joanne Harris.
- Selected as a ‘woman of achievement’ at the prestigious Women of the Year lunch, which brings together outstanding women from all walks of life. The ceremony was held in London on October 16, 2006.
- Jo was one of the first corporate financiers in the country to receive a new qualification based on her past experience alone. The prestigious advanced diploma in corporate finance was awarded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales.
- Recipient of a 2006 Woman of Achievement Award by the American Biographical Institute.
- Yorkshire Businesswoman of the Year 2005
- Her first book, The Business Rules, published 2005 and 2006, was such a success that a foreign rights deal has been confirmed with a publisher in China. Jo’s second book, An Entrepreneur’s Guide, was published in March 2007 and her third book, Tales from the Glass Ceiling - A Survival Guide for Women in Business, was published in June 2008 and sold out of its first reprint after five days.
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