Allen Browning is bringing more than 30 years of experience to Smart CT as he takes up the role of Chief Financial Officer.
He says his role will be to lend the company his business acumen as he supports CEO Andy Morgan. “I will be working alongside Andy, being his right hand man and the person he can bounce ideas off,” he says. “The relationship between CFO and CEO should always be like that, lots of ideas going back and forth, nothing’s a silly idea, because that’s the way you grow a business.”
He says his mission will be to look at the business with fresh eyes and use his commercial nous to identify opportunities. “I want to understand the key opportunities and challenges in this business and make sure that we appreciate what they are so that we start to address them,” he says.
“And once we’ve done that, the trick is to monitor the changes we’ve made to make sure that they are delivering the improvements we’re expecting.”
The 59-year-old grew up on a farm in North Bedfordshire and studied farm management at agricultural college but decided he’d get more fulfilment from growing profits instead of crops and qualified as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton.
“I decided that spending long hours sitting on my backside on a tractor wasn’t the best of fun and also didn’t use my brain,” he says.
He honed his skills working at companies in the printing, telecoms and data networking industries before spending 20 years working as an interim in a variety of sectors, specialising in helping clients grow.
He says: “I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would go into businesses when there had been a change of shareholder, be it private equity investment or a larger corporate where there’d been a change of the parent company. I relished being able to help deliver profit improvements and shareholder value enhancement.”
“It was just about going back to basics and getting the structure right. I think I’m 50 per cent accountant, 50 per cent commercial person. I’ve got good accounting skills, but I combine that with a commercial attitude. I think that’s always been my forte and I’m a person who gets things done.”
Allen, who is often to be found cycling around the Chilterns not far from his home in Rickmansworth, worked most recently in the technology, MSP and hydrogen fuel cell energy sectors and says he was attracted to Smart CT because of its fast-growing reputation and the sector’s potential for growth.
“IT technology and MSP is definitely a growth opportunity because we all rely on IT systems more and more,” he says. “It’s a great company with good backers and an excellent team. I’m looking forward to working with the management team in a commercial way to really drive this business forward and get it firing on all cylinders.”