* Matthew Melhuish joins as a Board Advisor in Sydney, Australia to work with businesses looking for their eventual liquidity event.
* Animesh Parihar joins in Mumbai, India to help Indian pure play IT companies grow inorganically
*Follows recent appointment of PwC veterans Julian Brown and Peter Jacobs, together with Frank founder, Andrew Bloch
Fast-growing M&A advisory firm PCB Partners has today announced two heavyweight appointments to further strengthen its team and international reach. They follow the recent appointment of PwC veterans Julian Brown and Peter Jacobs, and Frank founder Andrew Bloch.
Matthew Melhuish joins as a Board Advisor in Australia. Until recently Matthew was CEO of Enero, a publicly listed marketing services company. Enero had previously acquired his business, BMF, as well as Frank – which was founded by fellow PCB advisor, Andrew Bloch.
Animesh Parihar joins as a Consultant and will help Indian pure play IT companies grow inorganically, both internationally and locally. He brings to PCB Partners over 40 years’ industry experience – most recently as Head of Global Delivery at the financial technology company, Finastra.
PCB Partners is a leading mergers & acquisitions advisory firm, rooted in entrepreneurial culture. They provide buy-side and sell-side services, with a focus on disruptive technologies, digital transformation, management consulting and creative marketing services businesses.
Matthew Melhuish has had a 35-year career in the marketing services sector – working across the UK, Europe, USA and Australia. As an entrepreneur he founded BMF, a market leading Australian creative agency which grew to 250 employees. He sold it to the Group in 2007. He then became Enero’s CEO and led the successful turn-around of this international group, including several crucial buy side transactions. He concluded his Enero role in March 2020.
Matthew says: “PCB Partner’s entrepreneurial spirit and empathy for the entrepreneurial journey really sets them apart from others in this space. I’m excited to be joining them and look forward to bringing their very different approach to the Australian market.”
Based in Mumbai, Animesh Parihar has spent the last four years as Head of Global Delivery for Finastra, which is one of the world’s largest fintechs and works with over 9,000 customers, including 90 of the top 100 banks globally. Prior to that he has had senior positions at a number of global companies, including SAP, Oracle and Capgemini.
Animesh says: “In the last two decades the Indian IT sector has seen exceptional growth and these organisations have touched on almost every industry. But in the last couple of years it’s become abundantly clear that organic growth won’t be good enough – and that inorganic growth is the only way forward.
“I’m delighted to be joining PCB. It’s an incredible opportunity to really help Indian pure play IT companies grow inorganically, both internationally and locally.”
PCB Partners was founded in 2018 by Ben Doltis and Tim Farazmand, after they met during the process of Ben selling his first consulting business. Tim was Managing Director at LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Bank – and Ben founded the SJB Group, building it into the market-leading executive search firm in digital and management consulting. After considering selling to Tim and LDC, Ben sold it to ManpowerGroup in 2013.
Although Ben had decided not to sell his firm to LDC, Tim and Ben still subsequently got together to create a very different kind of M&A advisory firm, which stayed true to Ben’s entrepreneurial heritage, while at the same time understanding the very specific needs of multinational corporations.
Commenting on the appointments, Ben Doltis says: “Tim and I are delighted that Matthew and Animesh have joined the PCB Partners’ family, they bring invaluable new international perspectives, which will really help us grow in their respective regions. I’m really excited to be working with them and for the future of our firm.”
For further information please contact:
Cathal Morrow, Quingenti
Phone: +44 (0) 7785 598746
Email: Cathal@quingenti.com
Tim Farazmand, Chair and impact investor
Background
Tim has been involved in private equity investing since 1987 including significant time spent in 3i, RBS PE and LDC. For the last twenty years he has been involved increasingly in impact investing and currently chairs Palatine’s Impact fund.
Video length
10 minutes
Contact details
www.linkedin.com/in/timfarazmand/
www.palatinepe.com/our-funds/impact/
PR expert Andrew Bloch tells Candice Krieger how customers now judge brands on their values, what it’s like to work with Lord Sugar and why he is looking forward to what’s next.
As Lord Sugar’s adviser, Andrew Bloch is used to managing media requests, but the PR expert is now fielding a fair few of his own. Since stepping back in May from his day-to-day duties at Frank, the illustrious PR company he founded 20 years ago, Bloch’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing.
Bloch has built a reputation as one of the most respected industry leaders, having created effective communication campaigns for some of the world’s favourite brands including Coca-Cola, Disney, Compare the Market, Deliveroo and Burger King. And the former Haberdashers’ Aske’s pupil has become renowned for representing Lord Sugar (more on this later).
Bloch, who was named as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs in 2019, alongside Richard Branson, JK Rowling and his client, Lord Sugar, is now exploring new opportunities as well as continuing to work with Lord Sugar and his associated companies. He has recently taken on advisory board positions for Israeli PR tech company, Propel, M&A advisory firm PCB Partners, and Big Community Records, the record label founded by Google COO, Craig Fenton.
Bloch has also joined The Prince’s Trust as a business mentor. He remains a non-executive director and shareholder at Frank, and will consult brands and other agencies in the creative and marketing services space at a time when Bloch says it’s more important than ever for brands to get it right if they want to survive. “It’s not just about ‘talking the talk’, but ‘walking the talk’.
“It’s a skill of a good PR to be in tune with the zeitgeist but now, more so than ever, you need to get it right because if you get it wrong, there will be a backlash – there’s a real shortage of tolerance and you don’t want to be making mistakes.
“Leading up towards this pandemic, there had been a huge groundswell in the importance of authenticity and values,” says Bloch. “Customers are judging brands and corporations, their integrity and authenticity. Covid has put them in the spotlight and we have seen those that have gone above and beyond in terms of their duties.”
“It’s a skill of a good PR to be in tune with the zeitgeist but now, more so than ever, you need to get it right because if you get it wrong, there will be a backlash – there’s a real shortage of tolerance and you don’t want to be making mistakes”
He credits LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, and used its factories to make hand sanitisers, and Dyson, which offered to help manufacture ventilators, as well as those that turned their attention to feeding the NHS.
But Bloch acknowledges that what worked a week ago won’t necessarily be successful next week. “The real skill is selling messages that resonate with how people are feeling in this moment.
“And saying nothing is even worse – you don’t want to be silent. You go dark. Even if to communicate that you’re not doing very much, it’s important to keep talking and have a public face.”
“Even if to communicate that you’re not doing very much, it’s important to keep talking and have a public face”
Part of Bloch’s job is to give clients the confidence that what they are doing is right. He has spent more than two decades doing it. Starting out at Lynne Franks PR, Bloch co-founded Frank in 2000 with the former MD of the agency, Graham Goodkind. Three months in they got the chance to pitch for Amstrad.
“We lost the pitch. We knew this was a big opportunity for us, and we weren’t prepared to let it pass us by, so we literally begged for the chance to work on their business. I think they felt sorry for us. They reversed their decision and awarded us the account.”
This was the start of his 20-year relationship with Lord Sugar. He recalls: “I didn’t have too much to do with him initially. Our relationship built slowly when I would meet him at product launches and events. When you work with someone personally, it’s a relationship that is built on trust and you get used to each other’s styles.”
What’s Lord Sugar like to work with? “Great. When you watch him on The Apprentice, it’s a bit of a caricature. You don’t see some of his other traits: such as how sharp he is as a business person, his work ethic, his loyalty to his staff and his family side – he’s such a role model in terms of being a strong family man with great values and principles. You probably also don’t see his sense of humour in the same way. He is very funny and entertaining. And, of course, you don’t see all the s*** that goes on behind the scenes when you’re having to deal with aggressive media or other obstacles.
“I’ve learnt a lot from him. And when I stepped back from Frank, he was one of the clients I didn’t want to leave behind.”
When it comes to stand-out moments, Bloch says they are “for the wrong reasons in that they’re the headaches”. explaining: “When he was announced as Enterprise Tsar and made a lord, the media went to town saying there was a conflict between that and his role on The Apprentice and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such intense media attack. We went into battle on that one. I don’t think either of us will ever forget it. But there have also been some lovely moments.”
“I’ve learnt a lot from him. And when I stepped back from Frank, he was one of the clients I didn’t want to leave behind.”
Bloch was invited to the House of Lords for the ennoblement ceremony and was a guest at Lord Sugar and Lady Ann’s 40th wedding anniversary party. “And I’ve been lucky enough to have lunch on his boat.”
Worth £1.21 billion according to The Sunday Times Rich List, Lord Sugar doesn’t need to work.
“He works because he loves it and helping people develop their businesses,” says Bloch. “He’s also been a role model to me in terms of how to balance your life – he has an incredible life with homes in different places, and planes and boats and he manages to enjoy it all, yet I know that if I send an email he will be the first one to respond.
“He’s also been a role model to me in terms of how to balance your life – he has an incredible life with homes in different places, and planes and boats and he manages to enjoy it all, yet I know that if I send an email he will be the first one to respond.”
“It shows that he can enjoy the trappings of success and a brilliant career while still carrying on working.”
Scheduled filming of the 16th Apprentice series has been postponed until next year. In the meantime, Bloch is “taking a leaf out of Lord Sugar’s book” and enjoying his new chapter.
“I don’t know who’s going to phone me next and the diversity of it has been so interesting. Running Frank was relentless and I want to have a bit more of a work-life balance.”
From Meerkats to Arctic swimming and dancing Grannies, brands have become the talk of mainstream media through the antics of Andrew and his PR firm Frank.
In this interview, Andrew talks about how he comes up with ideas, working with Lord Alan Sugar and the work he is doing now in industries as diverse as new M&A and music.
Interview – click here
’Be bold, take a risk, and if you fail so be it.’ by Ben Doltis
YouTube
https://lnkd.in/dWuj3Aa
Podcast
https://lnkd.in/dFUK2JD
GROWING a business usually requires more cash than the average entrepreneur has in his or her bank account, meaning that most companies end up needing a loan, investment or other form of cash injection sooner or later.
Read the full Metro article here
*Former President of PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC in the US, Julian Brown, joins as Managing Partner*
*Former PwC Corporate Finance Partner, Peter Jacobs, joins as Chairman*
*Frank founder, Andrew Bloch, joins as Board Advisor*
Fast-growing M&A advisory firm PCB Partners has today announced the appointment of three industry heavyweights to further strengthen its team. They are PwC veterans Julian Brown and Peter Jacobs, who will spearhead PCB’s investment into corporate finance, and Frank founder Andrew Bloch, who will help pivot PCB buy-side clients into the world of digital and creative marketing services agencies.
PCB Partners is a leading mergers & acquisitions advisory firm rooted in entrepreneurial culture. They provide buy-side and sell-side services, with a focus on disruptive technologies, digital transformation, management consulting and creative marketing services businesses.
The firm was founded in 2018 by Ben Doltis and Tim Farazmand, after they met during the process of Ben selling his first consulting business. Tim was Managing Director at LDC, the
private equity arm of Lloyds Bank – and Ben founded the SJB Group, building it into the market-leading executive search firm in digital and management consulting. After considering selling to Tim and LDC, Ben sold it to ManpowerGroup in 2013.
Although Ben had decided not to sell his firm to LDC, Tim and Ben still subsequently got together to create a very different kind of M&A advisory firm, which stayed true to Ben’s entrepreneurial heritage, while at the same time understanding the very specific needs of multinational corporations.
Julian Brown joins as Managing Partner. As a Corporate Finance partner at Arthur Andersen, Deloitte and latterly PwC, he has 30 years’ experience advising public and private clients on domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions, capital raising, and divestitures.
During his career, Julian has been based in London, Madrid, Toronto and, most recently, New York, where as President of PwC’s US Corporate Finance business he led a team of more than 200 investment banking professionals across North and South America.
Julian Brown says: “I was attracted by the opportunity to work with partners from such a wealth of different backgrounds, all with a real entrepreneurial approach. After close to 30 years learning the M&A trade, then building businesses based pretty strongly around a single skillset, PCB Partners struck me as a differentiated model that would resonate far more strongly with clients. Its DNA provides us with instant credibility across the client spectrum from founder-run to large multinational businesses and, frankly, keeps things interesting for me after so long in the business.”
Peter Jacobs joins as Chairman. Peter had a 35-year career at PwC where, as a senior partner, he established and led its UK and European Private Equity M&A Advisory business. Peter has advised numerous companies and management teams on acquisitions, disposals, fundraisings and management buyouts.
Peter Jacobs says: “I’ve had a number of approaches from other M&A advisers, but saw little point in joining anyone with a me-too, undifferentiated offering. For me it was very much a case of ‘been there, done that’ so I concentrated on building a small portfolio of NED roles. When Ben and Tim first spoke to me about PCB Partners, I realised they had a far more interesting proposition in mind – an M&A business that truly understood and spoke the same language as its clients, and most importantly from an M&A perspective, one that had great people to work with and real reach and knowledge within its chosen market sectors.”
Andrew Bloch joins as Board Advisor. He is the founder of Frank, one of the UK’s most successful and established creative PR agencies. He set up Frank in 2000 and helped orchestrate the sale of the business to the Australian marketing services group, Enero, in 2007. Frank subsequently initiated another transaction post earn-out that saw a percentage of the agency returned to the management team.
Andrew is the official spokesperson for Lord Sugar and has acted for him since 2001. He is a founding mentor of the School of Communication Arts, a member of the Superbrands Council, and a business mentor to The Prince’s Trust.
Andrew Bloch says: “I’m delighted to be joining the advisory board of such a dynamic and fast-growing M&A business. PCB Partners has built an amazing team of individuals who are a breath of fresh air in the somewhat stuffy world of corporate finance. I’m looking forward to using my experience of having built an agency from scratch and selling it successfully to help broker similar deals for buy-side clients and agency owners. The interesting thing about the buy-side of M&A’s is that you can give access to companies that other M&A firms cannot, many of whose owners haven’t considered selling before. On the sell-side, I have first-hand experience of the importance of finding the right buyer. I’ve been through their journey and can help them make the right choices every step of the way.”
Commenting on the appointments, Ben Doltis says: “Julian, Peter and Andrew are great additions to the PCB Partners’ team. Tim and I are delighted they’ve come on board. Each brings unique skills and experience, which will really help us with all areas of our business. In Julian and Peter we have a couple of real industry heavyweights and in Andrew someone who is highly respected in marketing services and has been there, done it and worn the T-shirt. I’m really excited to be working with them and for the future of our firm.”
www.pcbpartners.co.uk
Click here to read more
Ben Doltis co-founded PCB Partners, a UK-based advisory firm providing buy-side services to support clients on their acquisition strategy. It brings its clients unique access to under-the-radar tech assets in the sub-£250 million catchment. The company has a proactive approach, using interactions and collaborations with vendors.
‘I created my first business in 2003, aged 21, the SJB Group – an executive search firm appointing senior hires in management consulting and tech,’ says Doltis. ‘I led the acquisition of a specialist healthcare recruitment operation SJB Medical, which became the largest private sector healthcare recruitment firm in the UK. I led the trade sale for both SJB companies to the Manpower Group.’
With a prolific network at C-suite in tech and services, he maintains ‘up to the minute’ insight into market trends. His expertise is complemented by a portfolio of professional interests including advisory roles with early-stage investments and as chair of the Business Launch Group at the Prince’s Trust.
‘The UK private healthcare market is going through significant changes, London most of all,’ he says. ‘As it becomes more competitive, it creates opportunities for medical practitioners and healthcare groups to change their businesses using M&A. PCB Healthcare is building a strong reputation for providing the best advice to these groups.’
HNW clients are often business owners, seeking to sell or buy, or investors seeking growth. Many are driven people who have built their business from scratch or enhanced a family business, who now want to generate some value from their hard work. PCB provides them with discreet, intimate advice to get them the outcomes they want. ‘We understand them, as we share their values and their drive,’ Doltis tells Spear’s. ‘PCB is a young firm, founded by three entrepreneurs with great track records. We have spent the year building our client base and executing our first transactions together. We have closed multiple significant deals and signed up a number of very interesting client mandates.’
One highlight of 2019 was being appointed by a top orthopaedic surgeon to find a buyer for his business: ‘We found him a deal with a hospital group that has hugely improved his and his patients’ experience.’
WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2ND ANNUAL EMEA CORPORATE GROWTH AWARDS
Top Transactions, Firms, Teams and Professionals Along with Lifetime and Leadership Award Winners Honoured on 25th April at the Lansdowne Club
London, New York, 30 April, 2018 – The M&A Advisor announced the winners of the 2nd Annual EMEA Corporate Growth Awards, in partnership with S&P Global Market Intelligence, at a Black Tie Gala to a lively, sold-out crowd at The Lansdowne Club on Wednesday, 25 April.
The Awards Gala, hosted by CNBC Anchor Tania Bryer, recognised and celebrated the leading corporations, transactions, teams and professionals – including the financial, legal and consulting team members, that played a key role in successful corporate development across the region in 2017, together with the inductees into The M&A Advisor Hall of Fame.
An independent judging panel of industry experts leveraged The S&P Capital IQ platform, an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence, to evaluate nominations representing over 300 individual companies from across Africa, Europe and The Middle East – a wide and varied group with deals valued at £10 million to tens of billions. To view judging panel, CLICK HERE.
“Since the inception of the M&A Advisor Awards in 2002, we have been recognising the leading dealmakers, firms and transactions. And each year we celebrate the creativity, perseverance and ingenuity of our industry’s professionals”, says David Fergusson, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of The M&A Advisor. “It is our great pleasure to partner with S&P Global Market Intelligence to award the leading corporations, transactions, teams and professionals in the EMEA region that played a key role in successful corporate growth strategies in 2017. And we were honoured to celebrate the accomplishments of Lifetime Achievement Award winner Tim Farazmand of Palatine Capital and Leadership Award winners Richard Madden of DC Advisory and Ian Bagshaw of White & Case.”
Earlier in the day, The M&A Advisor hosted an exclusive invitation-only Think Tank Corporate Growth Forum on the CNBC Europe Studio floor with many of the award winning c-suite executives, M&A dealmakers, and finance professionals participating along with technology industry leaders. This assembly provided a unique opportunity for the professionals guiding and executing business growth strategies to engage with their peers on some of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing companies in this market today.
For a detailed list of the 2nd Annual EMEA Corporate Growth Award Winners CLICK HERE.
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