Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help the UK’s fast growing smaller and medium sized businesses, has appointed John Swarbrick as its head of portfolio.
He will be joining immediately to play a key role in overseeing BGF’s growing portfolio of high growth entrepreneurial businesses.
Stephen Welton, chief executive of BGF, says: “We are delighted that John is joining BGF. He brings with him a wealth of experience from his 15 years with LDC, a firm with a great and long-standing track record of successfully investing in the UK, and from his time in industry before that.”
Swarbrick has a strong track record of investing in the UK mid-market and, over the course of his career, has sat on a wide variety of SME boards. Prior to joining LDC and heading up its Leeds office, he was finance director of a private equity backed textile group. Swarbrick began his career as a corporate finance advisor with PwC.
Swarbrick will continue working for LDC in a part time capacity until the end of 2013, supporting John Garner who has been appointed as LDC’s new director in charge of its Leeds office. He will also retain responsibility for a number of LDC’s investments in Yorkshire and the North East.
Swarbrick will split his time between BGF’s current six offices helping the regional directors and their teams to make a positive contribution to investee companies. He will also be part of the senior team monitoring investment quality and resource allocation, as well as a member of the investment committee.
Swarbrick says: “I am delighted to be joining BGF at this exciting time. Stephen and his team have created a superb business, which has achieved tremendous momentum in a short space of time. We anticipate that this rapid growth will continue and there will be plenty of work to do to provide the level of support that BGF backed businesses deserve.”
