Old Advisory Board
Chris Astle
Chief Executive Officer at Think Forwards
Chris Astle is the founder of Think Forwards and has extensive experience of project management, driving transformation within both start-ups and global listed multi-nationals and coaching and mentoring staff.
He has held a number of diverse positions, and began his career at GlaxoSmithKline as a research scientist, before moving to PwC to begin his career in finance. He has held senior positions across different industries, most recently being CFO of Allergan, before moving on to begin his own advisory practise.
Jason Collins
Head of Tax at Pinsent Masons
Jason is one of the leading tax practitioners in the UK, specialising in tax audit, direct tax and VAT, as well as tax treaty and State aid. He is also a leading expert on Country-by-Country reporting, FATCA and the OECD's Common Reporting Standard.
Jason is a Committee member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and is consistently top-ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers.
Agnes Aszodi
Chief Financial Officer at Gumtree
Agnes has been CFO of Gumtree since 2015, after moving over from parent company, eBay. She began her career at the US multinational General Electric and worked her way to FP&A leader over ten years. She moved to e-commerce corporation eBay in 2013, where she was FP&A manager for EEC Marketplaces before moving into the CFO role.
Richard Asquith
VP of Global Indirect Tax at Avalara
Richard was previously Finance Director for the BBC before becoming the Global Head of VAT for the TMF Group. He founded his own company in 2014 and specialises in Global Indirect Tax.
Chris Paton
Managing Director at Quirk Solutions
Chris is a business wargaming specialist who has helped companies like Shell to stress test new projects. His company works with Waitrose, the Co-op and the NHS as well as other businesses, to look for blind spots to predict future crises.
Chris is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines, who advised on Afghan Strategy to the Cabinet Office and coordinated the design of the drawdown of the UK presence in Afghanistan. He left the Armed Forces to provide consultancy to BUPA, Heineken and Standard Life Investments, amongst others.
A Fellow of the Strategic Planning Society, Chris regularly speaks at summits and conferences and also lectures at the London Business School.
George Bull
Senior Tax Partner at RSM
George regularly advises on both the development and the implementation of domestic and international expansion strategies. The work he undertakes ranges from facilitating an overview at the highest level, through to identifying specific areas for expansion and working with colleagues on the ground to support the execution of the chosen strategy.
George is a member of the Tax Working Party of the Association of Partnership Practitioners. He regularly broadcasts, lectures and writes on all aspects of professional practices and taxation.
Michael Landau
Group Chief Financial Officer at Lycamobile Group
Michael is group Chief Financial Officer of the Lycamobile Group. Michael has extensive experience in both public and private accompanies and was Chief Financial Officer at Kalido, a tech company owned by Royal Dutch Shell, which he steered to an exit from Shell via a MBO.
Michael has also been Treasury and Credit Director with the international technology group, Madge Networks N.V, which listed on NASDAQ, while also leading the company to acquire a large Israeli subsidiary.
John Park
Chief Financial Officer at McDonald's UK
John Park became CFO for McDonald’s UK in 2016, and is responsible for finance, supply chain and legal oversight.
Park joined the company in 2003 as an assistant operations accountant and over 14 years progressed up to finance director, then vice president of finance, before taking on the top finance role as CFO of McDonald's UK.
Before joining McDonald's, the Nottingham University-educated CFO worked in audit at KPMG, and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.