About Us

We know that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. There are many brilliant businesses solving complex problems to make the world a better place. But evolving from a scrappy, entrepreneurial venture to a mature, high-growth company brings a unique set of challenges, not least the critical impact people as individuals and in teams have on achieving a company’s ambitions.

For investors in these businesses, a volatile environment and ever higher entry multiples have made it more difficult than ever to create value.

At Catalysis Advisory, we believe that with the right guidance, tools and insights, small actions can have a catalytic impact on success.

Who we are

Catalysis Advisory is a team of specialist advisors that helps ambitious companies and their investors navigate the transition towards scaled-up, confidently-managed businesses. We are experts in team and organisational strategy, and partner with investors and management teams to set out a roadmap for future success.

We have worked in almost all sectors but find the main challenges depend mostly on size and stage rather than industry. Our deep understanding of complex business and people issues comes from the decades of senior experience our project leads bring, leveraged by robust data and processes, and a holistic framework underpinned by thought leadership. We are not afraid to challenge and be challenged, because we believe that the best outcome is one we arrive at together.

How we work

We bring a distinctive style to the work we do:

We work in partnership

Regardless of who commissions us, we see both investors and management teams as our clients, serving their joint interests in growth and value creation.

We aim to create disproportionate impact

by focusing on the few things which really matter and finding pragmatic ways to move them in the right direction.

We are innovators and learners

We've been doing this work for 20 years but know there is still plenty we need to learn and improve in collaboration with clients.

We are advisers not consultants

We see our role as bringing questions, tools and good discussion to help companies find the right answers to their issues.

We find the right mix of challenge and support

but have an opinionated eye on what clients need as much as what they want.

We are data driven

but always remember that tools are only there to help ask better questions and work out what the human story means.

Our people

The team at Catalysis Advisory is made up of specialist advisors that have worked in diverse roles and industries. Together, we have worked in almost every sector and bring decades of senior experience to helping ambitious companies and their investors navigate the growth transition.

 

What we share is

After establishing our blue-chip credentials, we chose to direct our energies towards the more ‘real’ world of small and mid-sized companies. We have all taken risks in creating new businesses or transforming them.

Direct experience of leading or governing businesses and social enterprises: we don’t sit in any ivory towers but, rather, all have scars to show for our successful (and less successful) efforts.

Mike Hicks

Founder & CEO

  • My connection to investing in mid-market growth companies goes back to 1994 when I worked in EBRD assisting, amongst other things, with the creation of the first private equity fund in Romania. After a spell running a JV between Creditanstalt Investment Bank and Advent International, I became interested in how to improve investor-management interactions and have dedicated myself to that topic for more than 20 years.

    I founded Catalysis in 2010 after some years running a similar practice within Grant Thornton and have handled, with support from skilled colleagues, more than 735 projects since then.

    I have a BA, MSc and DPhil from the University of Oxford. My ‘hobby’ for the last 20 years has been holding various roles on the boards of educational social enterprises, including as Chair.

Anthea Vidler

Operations Manager & Project Success

  • Anthea joined the Catalysis team in 2021. She is responsible for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Catalysis across both client-facing and internal activities including account management strategy, business development/marketing, HR and ensuring consistency of delivery.

    Anthea has more than 19 years’ experience in professional services having previous held roles within RSM Robson Rhodes, RSM Tenon, Chamonix Private Equity and Clearwater International.

Alysoun Stewart

Adviser

  • Aly and I connected originally in Grant Thornton around 2006 when she led a team focused on growth company strategy and helped me build an organisational effectiveness tool and organisation develop methodology. Since 2010 we have worked on a variety of strategy and organisation projects together. However, in recent years she has been much in demand transforming businesses in the professional services and property sectors, as well as running her own furniture manufacturing business.

    She has an MA in Modern History and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and started her career in accountancy as a corporate finance partner with Grant Thornton. After a period helping Raymond Blanc expand his restaurant business, Aly created her own food concept. She has served as a director of multiple businesses as well as of schools.

Peter Fischer Brown

Adviser

  • Peter began working with the Catalysis team in 2020. With a background in consumer goods marketing, he has held senior leadership positions in the telecommunications and ICT sector, with Orange, where he specialised in b2b strategy and marketing, and in Management Consulting with KPMG. He is trustee of a leading charity in the food education sector, a member of the Medinge Group  and a Fellow of Radix. 

    Peter has an MA in Modern Languages, and an MPhil in International Relations, both from the University of Cambridge and an LTCL diploma from Trinity College London. He does business in English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Caroline Gourlay

Adviser

  • Caroline began working with Catalysis in 2021. She has a particular interest in post-deal management support and assessments for additional hires.

    Caroline is a Chartered Psychologist with over 20 years’ experience of the assessment and development of leaders and leadership teams. She supports leaders in scale-up businesses in receipt of Innovate UK grants and advises on leadership issues for businesses in distress as an associate member of the Institute for Turnaround. She has coached on leadership programmes at Saïd Business School, Oxford University.

    Caroline has a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Occupational Psychology and is Chartered through the British Psychological Society. She has a Diploma in Executive Coaching and is qualified to use a wide range of psychometric assessment tools. Aside from working with Catalysis she has her own business psychology practice.

Deborah Barleggs

Adviser

  • Deborah is a Chartered Psychologist and Accredited Coaching Psychologist, with over two decades of coaching and consulting experience across private, public and third sectors.  During this time, Deborah has held leadership roles in three consultancy practices, including Head of Psychology at Arup Consulting, and a Director of Zircon Management Consulting.

    Deborah enjoys a portfolio career as a leadership and career coach and talent assessor and talent management adviser. She works with several consultancies and corporate clients across financial services, construction, energy, public sector and professional services, as well as PE backed businesses, supporting career pathway and talent development programmes. 

Kirsty Baggs-Morgan

Adviser

  • Kirsty began working with Catalysis in 2022. Her background is in international HR leadership, where she spent 20 years in the financial services sector before moving into the PE backed Technology and FinTech space.  She has experience in multiple geographies and has spent time working in the USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.

    Kirsty has additionally worked as an independent HR Consultant, advising SME’s on strategic direction and helping shape leadership teams across multiple sectors. She is a qualified coach through the Academy of Executive Coaching and specialises in coaching senior HR professionals. In addition to her work with Catalysis and her coaching practice, Kirsty retains a part-time Head of HR role for a FinTech company.

Chris Wilkinson

Adviser

  • Chris began working with Catalysis in 2022 after spending 15 years in HR roles. Starting his career in the NHS, he then moved into the venture backed start-up world where he built HR functions and management teams at high-growth tech-first ecommerce, hospitality and marketplace consumer businesses. This included 5 years as a key executive at Depop helping grow the organisation from 40 to 500 people, from early-stage funding to a unicorn exit in 2021. As such, he has worked on multiple fundraising due diligence processes involving investors as a management team member, as well as working on integration processes following two vertical acquisitions.

    Alongside his career as an HR professional, Chris volunteered extensively in mental health and mentoring, and completed his training as a psychotherapeutic counsellor in 2016 and qualified as a coach through the Academy of Executive Coaching in 2017. His current practice focuses on leadership coaching and HR advisory for scaling businesses, as well as counselling.

Katrina Bowles

Adviser

  • Katrina began working with Catalysis in 2024. She is a coach and business psychologist with over a decade of experience driving People and Talent Management specifically within VC & PE backed tech scaleups, in both B2B & B2C markets; on a mission to support and enable individuals and businesses to thrive, through carving out great people experiences as companies rapidly scale and evolve.

    Passionate about social mobility, supporting organisations aimed at improving the socio-economic mobility of younger generations and marginalised groups in society.

Victor Vadaneaux

Adviser

  • Victor has worked with Catalysis since 2021. He has extensive experience managing and transforming private-equity owned companies. He has worked with private equity firms G Square, Cairngorm Capital, Oakley Capital and ICG as Chairman, interim CEO, Non-Executive Director and Operating Partner of their investee businesses. Victor works with the management teams and the PE owners, acting on strategy, operations, organisation and bringing in technology and expertise to achieve a step change in value. Prior to this, Victor was an investor-backed entrepreneur and CEO of Centerra Partners, a venture he co-founded in Central Europe.

    Victor has an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Télécom ParisTech in France.

    Victor has particular experience in the healthcare, digital, business services, and industrial sectors.