A personal board practice · Bolton · 100 miles · remote
Jayesh P. Patel MBA FInstSMM JP takes Non-Executive Chair and NED seats for owner-managed businesses that need an independent adult in the room. Twenty-five years of sector-agnostic board work — including crisis finance in construction, a five-year Chair mandate at a multi-site UK services business, and capital-structure work on an eight-digit investment. This site is the brochure: send it to a client, or use it before you appoint.
Two doors. Same practice.
For SME owners and directors
When succession, sale, investment or a shaky finance function is on the table. Typical NED cadence is 24 days a year. The first 90 days exist so the board changes in one cycle — not after a six-month review.
For accountants and professional advisers
Jayesh will not bid for compliance, tax, audit or the deal. You stay on the introduction thread. Forward the accountants’ page or the PDF. Best-fit: owner-managed clients within 100 miles of Bolton, or remote.
Three ways to work
Jayesh only. Typically around 24 days a year. Represent shareholders, hold the executive — especially the FD — to account on the integrity of the numbers, and keep Strategy, Performance, People and Risk on the table.
The Chair mandate →When the owner needs an independent view on organisational structure, marketing strategy, succession, investment or a restructure — without a formal board appointment. Clear brief. Finite days. No expanding retainer.
Board advisory →The same practice. When the horizon is private equity, a trade sale or a listing inside five years, Jayesh still chairs — and brings in finance, sales, marketing and growth specialists under the R W Progressive board. The working name for that programme is IPO in 5.
Five-year value programme →Why owners appoint
R W Progressive works with owner-managed and mid-market businesses that want value creation — not a lifestyle that happens to trade. Sector-agnostic. The common pattern is a structural event: succession, sale, PE or VC, refinance, acquisition, merger, or a finance function that is no longer safe to take on trust.
Jayesh’s MBA specialisms are organisational structure design and marketing / business strategy. That is why the work looks different from a generalist NED or a project consultant. The product is a board that can inspect performance between meetings.
About Jayesh
Evidence, not atmosphere
Selected work — used with permission of the public record you already share
Growth oversight plus crisis response after FD fraud and cashflow stress — bankers, HMRC, shareholders, suppliers. Reputation and growth protected. Pipeline of more than £80m qualified opportunities against 33 checkpoints.
Financial stress. Headcount 80+ to 19 while volumes increased. Three UK trading units. AI-enabled M&A. Clear KPIs the board could actually use.
Private-investor negotiation and capital structuring around an eight-digit investment and a subsequent £400m growth plan. Executive accountability on performance and the integrity of the numbers.
For accountants
Partners are asked for “someone who can sit on the board” when a client is scaling, selling, raising or cleaning up finance. Jayesh will not bid against you for compliance, tax, audit or the transaction. You remain the adviser of record. He will not go around you.
Forward the accountants’ briefing. Stay on the introduction thread. Best-fit clients are owner-managed businesses in reach of Bolton — construction, services, specialist trades, agencies, media and technology — and any firm whose client is approaching capital, succession or a finance-function problem.
The accountants’ page“Jayesh is extremely knowledgeable in his field, and in his role as our Non-Executive Director, he has helped us to focus on what matters, enabling us to grow.”
Gordon Wilcock, Founder & Director, a law firm
What clients said
“We appointed Jayesh as our Non-Executive Director in February 2020. A strategy was road mapped and a detailed business plan set into motion. The assistance, support and accountability from Progressive is second to none.”
Group Director, construction
“We received an offer in excess of £5m from a PLC. After consultation with Jayesh, we decided to decline it and embark on a diversification and acquisition strategy to grow the company further.”
Managing Director, business services company
“By working closely with our Category A clients, we established higher prices and attracted more customers of a similar type — by understanding needs rather than supplying what we thought they needed.”
Managing Partner, accountancy firm
Insights
The one-page briefing partners can attach to an introduction. When a NED is the right product — and what Jayesh will not do to your client relationship.
Read and download →
Value creation is a five-year board problem, not a brochure. What has to be true before an investor or a listing will take the business seriously.
Read and download →Questions owners and accountants actually ask
When a structural event is coming — succession, sale, PE or other investment, refinance, acquisition — or when the numbers are no longer safe to take on trust. A NED is an independent adult in the room, not another pair of hands.
At R W Progressive the typical cadence is about 24 days a year, denser in the first 90 days so the board changes in one cycle.
No. Jayesh will not bid for compliance, tax, audit or the transaction. The accountant remains the adviser of record and stays on the introduction thread.
A ready-made board for companies that want private equity within five years or a listing. Jayesh chairs; specialists join for finance, sales, marketing and growth. R W Progressive itself stays a personal practice.
In person within 100 miles of Bolton — Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and the western edge of Yorkshire — and remotely across the UK.
Start here
Book a call to test whether a Chair seat, a finite advisory brief, or IPO in 5 is the right product. Advice is without obligation and confidential. Jayesh will not fill your diary afterwards.
j.patel@rwprogressive.co.uk · 07771 871 757
linkedin.com/in/jayesh-patel-ned
In the press. During Covid-19 Jayesh won national advertising through an FSB initiative with the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Metro and i, and used it to offer free strategy time to SMEs. The work was coverage of that offer — not a paid editorial column.