Introducing nQ Advance™...

nQ Advance™ is an nQ legal initiative aimed at supporting and encouraging business and career development in these challenging times. We have put together a group of best-in-class specialists, each of whom we know and trust. They care passionately about their chosen fields and each of them is committed to help support the growth and success of businesses and individuals in their respective industries.

Our specialists operate in the same sectors as nQ legal and together we are happy to discuss any ideas or questions that you may have.

Each member of our panel is here to offer you an initial without-commitment consultation free of charge, and then the rest is up to you.

If legal input is required at any stage we will be there to assist and to provide solutions.

All you need to do to take advantage of nQ Advance™ is to get in touch with us, and we can take it from there.

Introducing our specialists...

Harvey Samson

Commercial Consultancy and Corporate Turnaround

Harvey specialises in turning around underperforming businesses and has held senior management positions within both the public company and private sectors.

His roles have included leading the highly successful management buy out of Peter Cox Limited – the market leading preservation business, Group Chief Executive of The Gardiner Group PLC, Europe’s largest distributor of electronic security products, and Group Chief Executive of Latium Group Limited, where he was also Managing Director of Ultraframe Limited. He was also Group Finance Director of Restore PLC, the acquisitive office services business, and Non-Executive Chairman of Cheshire Sport Limited, the owner of Premiership Rugby Union club Sale Sharks.

Simon Rimmer

Leisure, Hospitality, and Media

Simon Rimmer is the chef and co-presenter of Sunday Brunch. He has a wealth of TV experience, and has appeared over many years across channels including BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV. Simon is also a chef/investor in 14 restaurants here in the northwest of England, and in one in Dubai. Simon’s real passion for food began as a restaurateur and he continues to cook in the restaurants every week, which he enjoys immensely, but also keeps him in touch with the culinary trends of the moment. Simon has also written and published five successful books, including the recent Sunday Brunch Cookbook. He also regularly contributes to food magazines including Delicious, Olive, BBC Good Food Magazine and Vegetarian Living.

Simon frequently works with brands on PR campaigns, and corporate events.

Nicky Dunn OBE

Venues, Events, Infrastructure

Nicky has over 30 years executive and non-executive experience in commercial leisure. She has extensive experience in feasibility studies, planning, opening and successfully operating large venues. Her experience includes development and monitoring of business strategy and organisational transformation. She has worked with both public and private sectors including commercial entities with a public sector stakeholder.

She currently Chairs the board of Jockey Club Live and the London Stadium and is a board member of The Young Vic Theatre and Ports of Jersey. Previous boards include The London Legacy Development Corporation (Olympic Park) She chaired the board of The London Stadium and The Titanic Foundation, which built and owns the award-winning Titanic visitor attraction together with other assets along the waterfront in Belfast. She also chaired the most successful Netball World cup, held in Liverpool in July 2019.

Dave Lockwood

Football and Commerce

After 13 years in banking, primarily commercial banking and finance with HFC Bank, David decided to start his own business in sports management, setting up X8 Sports Management in 1998. He built a vibrant and successful business, which was bought by Stellar Group in 2004, with David joining Stellar as a director responsible for the UK Northern Division. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength – Stellar now represents over 700 professional footballers including a number of global superstars and numerous international players, and other elite athletes across the sporting spectrum. Stellar is now recognised as one of the leading sports management agencies in the world.

As a member of the board, David also plays a key role in shaping the strategic direction of the business, and was heavily involved in the recent business sale which saw Stellar become part of global talent management agency ICM.

Andrew Hampson

Retail and fashion

Currently COO of Nigel Cabourn Marketing Limited and Chairman of Nigel Cabourn Design Limited, Andrew is responsible for the manufacturing, E-comm, and store business as well as negotiating design contracts for collaborations with the brand. Previously, he was MD of his own distribution company and launched brands such as ‘Rains’ and ‘Aark Copenhagen’, building these into multi-million pound businesses. In addition, Andrew owned the franchises for ‘Vivienne Westwood’ and ‘Belstaff’ stores in Glasgow, building them to be highly successful and the highest returns per square foot of all their other stores.

Previous roles have included global brand manager for Belstaff as well as divisional managing director for the Dewhirst Group, manufacturing world-wide for retailers such as Thomas Pink, Zara, and Wal-mart.

Andrew Fickling

Technology, Media and Telecoms

As a long standing listed company CEO and COO, mentor and consultant, Andrew has extensive experience in the TMT sector, unlocking the potential of businesses with clear, realistic and actionable strategic guidance. He has helped companies of all sizes navigate some of the toughest economic challenges of recent years, with a particular emphasis on how the whole organisation can be motivated to steer a business through complex change, be that prior to fund raising or financial re-structuring, as a result of operational process shifts, or stemming from leadership or productivity challenges.

Previous roles include being both MD and CEO for Sport Media Plc, COO of Eagle Eye Solutions, the leading SAAS technology company focussed on validation and redemption of digital promotions in real-time for the grocery, retail and hospitality industries, and he has and continues to acts as mentor and consultant to a variety of businesses.

Karen Greig

Elite Sport and Performance

Karen is Manchester Thunder Director of Netball and Head Coach. She took on this role in 2016 at a time when the team had lost many of its skilled players to more influential clubs. She re-built the squad from scratch, as well as building the Pathway performance for players and coaches. She ultimately led Thunder to championship victory in the 2019 Vitality Super League. Since her appointment as DON, the club has also produced more athletes for the England National squad (at Roses, U21 and academy levels) than any other Super League franchise across all age groups.

Prior to her current role Karen represented her country as part of the England set up – as both player (both U16 and Roses), England Performance Pathway Coach, England Netball Technical coach (Netball World Cup 2015), England Selector for Roses Academy and England U21 Head Coach.

She has spent 18 years in total so far as part of the set up at Manchester Thunder, first as player, then assistant coach, and now DON, taking the club into its most successful period ever.

Tom Rosillo

Online Digital and Marketing

Tom is a PR and Marketing professional with over 10 years experience. Early career was spent working for and with some of the UK’s biggest companies including AO, UK’s biggest online retailer of white goods, LateRooms.com, and Manchester United. Following this Tom went agency side working as the Operations Director at Bring Digital, an independent digital marketing agency specialising in SEO and PPC. Tom sat on the board at Bring Digital overseeing delivery of marketing campaigns for Ann Summers, DW Fitness, Cotton Traders and Love Energy Savings to name just a few.

Since leaving Bring Digital in early 2020, Tom has set up a PR agency working specifically with Law Firms and Barristers’ Chambers and also sits on the board of music marketing agency Blackstar London. Tom has vast experience in the areas of digital strategy across SEO, PPC, affiliate and email marketing, social media – paid and organic social media set up and strategy, public relations – online & offline PR strategy and delivery, securing national, international and industry press, and business and finance operations for online / digital service-based businesses.

Rob White

Brand Marketing & Advertising

After 18 years in advertising, Rob set up ZEAL Creative with his partner Stewart Hilton. Together they have built a multi-award winning marketing agency which is currently the most effective brand activation agency in the UK, and their team are The Drum’s most recommended for client service. Clients include Kellogg’s, Nestlé, McCain, Warburtons, Quorn & Arla. The agency now employs over 60 people. As an expert in marketing, Rob plays a key role in advising multi-national brands on brand strategy, understanding shopper behaviour and winning with retailers.

As well as being a director for the Institute of Promotional Marketing, Rob also acts as a mentor with new business start-ups for Tech Manchester and as part of his talent identification & development programme, Rob has also developed his own in house training academy which has been recognised as being best in class within the industry.

Ian Sinderson

Commerce, Travel, Event Management and Logistics

Ian is CEO of the ATPI Group, a billion pound turnover travel management group, which houses a dedicated sports events management division.

Ian was part of the original MBO team in 2006. He has also undertaken a number of strategic acquisitions to build ATPI, having previously worked as the Group CFO for 15 years prior to becoming CEO last year.

Ian is a qualified chartered accountant and worked at EY prior to moving into industry.

Sports Clients of ATPI include the Dutch and Canadian Olympic Committees, a number of Professional football clubs in the UK and in Europe, Rugby Union Southern Hemisphere, Formula E motor racing, NBA Basketball, and major event sponsors such as Heineken and Volvo. Services include travel management, event logistics, creative services and hosting.

The wider ATPI portfolio include energy, mining and marine businesses, media organisations and universities amongst many others.

In addition we have priority access to specialists in venue management, live entertainment, and sport administration, who are available to help.