The Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help the UK’s growing smaller and medium sized businesses, has expanded its Talent Network team in the north with the appointment of Victoria Robson.
Robson joins BGF’s Leeds office and will further develop the firm’s relationships with a broad network of experienced business leaders across the region.
Robson’s role as Talent Network manager will be to cultivate BGF’s relationships with a range of experienced senior business leaders in order to offer BGF investee companies access to a pool of expert talent. BGF has already introduced 48 senior non-executive chairman and directors to its growing portfolio of 60 investee companies.
Robson joins the Leeds team and will work across BGF’s seven national offices, with a particular focus on building BGF’s regional network across the north which includes Manchester, Leeds, the North East, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Robson was formerly with Directorbank, where she gained 13 years’ experience managing the firm’s relationships with senior executives and non-executives across a range of sectors and geographies but with a particular focus on healthcare.
Investment momentum across BGF’s Manchester and Leeds offices has been strong recently with a strong pipeline of investment opportunities on the horizon. BGF recently completed a GBP2.5m investment in Rotherham-based interiors subcontractor Horbury Group which was the first South Yorkshire based business that BGF has backed so far. The team completed a further investment in the North East of England which will be announced in due course. It has invested circa GBP30m in the county to date via its Leeds and Manchester based local investment teams.
Cate Poulson, head of the BGF Talent Network, says: “I am delighted to welcome Victoria to the Talent Network team. She will be an invaluable asset to BGF as we build partnerships with management teams not only in the north but also more generally across the UK. Our aim is to develop a broad network of experienced directors with wide ranging skills, in order to drive the growth and development of the businesses that we invest in.”
Robson says: “Throughout my career I have built strong and enduring relationships candidates and management teams alike. I am delighted to be joining BGF at this exciting time. BGF’s Talent Network has achieved tremendous momentum in a short space of time and I am looking forward to helping provide the level of support BGF backed businesses deserve.”
