James Layland, Chief Financial Officer – Surepharm

"I first spoke to Mallory Partners in June 2021. I had a very idiosyncratic set of requirements as I was looking for a Chief Financial Officer role, in a private equity-backed, medical/pharma ‘contract manufacturing’ space, and I spotted an opportunity on LinkedIn which captured everything I was seeking.

I spoke with Martin and met with Ed before they introduced me to Chiltern Capital. The process was mostly virtual, as we were exiting COVID restrictions at the time. As sometimes happens, having had excellent initial meetings, the deal that the role was contingent upon was then delayed for a few months, pending completion of extended diligence. The Mallory Partners team were however great at keeping me appraised on developments, as the deal progressed. Throughout the process they prepared me well for each interaction with Chiltern Capital, even enabling me to feed proactively ideas into their planning for and modelling of the deal - which was a great move as it allowed us to test each other out. At the offer stage, Martin also supported the negotiation process very effectively. We had very honest conversations which enabled me and Chiltern Capital to end up in the right place"