Kevin Paget is one of a rare breed - a management accountant who’s worked his way into corporate finance. He is now a director at boutique corporate finance firm Samuels Corporate Ltd.
For an international financier and deal-broker, Kevin’s beginnings are surprisingly humble. He left school at 17 to join the MoD as an administrative assistant. “The MoD was overstaffed in those days, so there was ample time for senior staff to mentor younger employees like myself. I had started a two year BTEC day release course in Business and Finance, for which one of the projects was to invest an imaginary £50k over the course of the first year, keeping a detailed log. Knowing little about investments at that time, other than my bank account, my manager at the MoD suggested I speak to Fred Lee, who was CEO of our division. I spent nearly a day a week in Fred’s cigar smoke filled office for the next eight months, during which time he taught me to understand and interpret the back pages of the FT.
“By the end of the year the best any of the other students had performed was to turn their imaginary £50k into amounts between £80k to £120k. I’d turned mine into £320k! With £££ signs in my eyes, I wanted to replicate that success in the real world and had already started successfully investing my small savings pot, mainly into privatisations and new issues. A career in stockbroking seemed an obvious move, but Fred advised me against it. He explained that a stockbroker was limited to that one specialism of the financial markets and could lose his job in a market downturn - whereas being an accountant I could gain broader business experience and then specialise any way I wanted, even then moving into the financial markets if I so desired. Not convinced, I then spent a further two years at evening classes studying for an HND in Business and Finance and then finally agreed with Fred’s thoughts and embarked on studying for the CIMA qualification.”
Kevin left the MoD and joined Prudential Property Services, followed by Taylor Nelson Research as a financial accountant, and then Canon. It was whilst on Canon’s fast-track management path where job titles included finance manager, financial controller and commercial finance manager, that he first became involved in M&A, completing 23 minority share purchases and three 100% acquisitions. He also found time to take an active role in Canon’s business mentoring programme with Business Link to help small local businesses.
After ten years with Canon, in 1999 he took a year out to travel the world and think through his next move. He decided that he wanted to work for a company where there was a financial incentive other than just a salary, and looked at jobs that included equity options in the package. He took a role in a start-up company working with business angels whose main interest was a business selling broadcast news via the internet, using clever software to download a TV broadcast quality picture instantly to the buyer’s PC. The Dotcom crash meant that raising additional funding became almost impossible for any business that was internet based and his equity options became worthless.
It was time for a rethink and he had his eye on a start-up in which he could take a significant equity share. “But the deal was just too long coming,” said Kevin, and with the recruitment industry in turmoil due to the terrorist activity in the USA in 2001 he joined Northern and Shell, publishers of the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine, with TV interests in adult, shopping and gaming channels. “I thought I would only stay there for six months, until the recruitment market settled, but it was a wonderfully entrepreneurial organisation so I stayed for nearly five years. Initially I was financial controller of TV, but soon started working in a financial capacity on various new business ventures that included the launch of a new shopping channel and even a rock band! My last year was spent working and living in New York as part of a team that set up and launched the OK! magazine into the USA. I enjoyed working at Northern and Shell but ultimately I still wanted to work for an organisation in which I held an equity interest.”
He joined Blueheath Holdings in 2006 - an internet-enabled grocery wholesaler with an aggressive growth strategy - as group financial controller, taking some equity options in the business. A year later it was sold to Booker in a reverse takeover, and it was time to think again. “I spent a few months at home enjoying my young family, then I got a call about the role at Samuels Corporate who were looking for an accountant with a very commercial background.
“It’s a great role and my entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills are allowed to really come to the fore. As a corporate finance advisor I’ve been involved with financial restructuring, MBOs, MBIs, raising venture capital, company sales and strategy/planning work for a variety of businesses in sectors such as aviation, food manufacture, waste disposal, outsourcing and IT.”
Kevin reflects on his unusual career path: “I think it goes to show that soft skills and extracurricular activities are just as important - if not more important - than academics. It was my entrepreneurial attitude, as well as my interest in mentoring businesses that got me to where I am today, coupled with a big ‘thank you’ to Fred.”
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