Forty years in the room. Not on the sidelines.

I don't advise from theory. Everything I bring to your business, I've done in my own, built it, run it, grown it across borders, and ultimately sold it. The payroll decisions, the hiring that went wrong, the bet-the-company calls, the deals that made the year. I've been in the chair you're sitting in.

That's the difference. When what got you here stops working, you don't need another consultant with a methodology. You need someone who has actually navigated the turn, and who will tell you the truth about what he sees.

The short version of a long career

In 1993 I joined WILA, a German-owned lighting business, as UK Managing Director. I later relocated to Germany to run the German operation directly, and in 2004 led a management buyout to take ownership of both the UK and German operations. I ran the group for the next thirteen years, built and ran WILA USA, and led the company's export business across international markets. In 2016 I sold WILA to a private equity buyer and exited in 2017.

Before all of that, I spent eight years across the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain, employed directly by leading regional partners, managing large international workforces and building commercial relationships across four countries.

Building, running, growing and ultimately selling a business over forty years: that is what I bring to the owner-managers I work with today. Not a framework. Not a methodology. The real thing.

Why EXALTA exists

I founded EXALTA in 2017 to do one thing well, to sit alongside owners of established businesses at the point where what got them here stops working, and help them build what comes next. Board, strategy, governance, leadership. Whatever the business actually needs.

Current and recent clients span manufacturing and engineering, energy, hospitality and leisure, and specialist technology, typically £1M to £50M, and often at a point of transition, growth or structural change.

Beyond the boardroom

Forty years in industry leaves you with more than a career history. I've given my time to the sectors and institutions I care about, as a Senior Advisor to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Chairman of the Institute of Directors in Oxfordshire, President of the Lighting Industry Federation, and Chairman of the Lumicom WEEE recycling scheme. I'm a Trustee and long-standing member of the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers, and I have mentored growing businesses through the OxLEP Business Growth Hub and Oxford Brookes University's Help to Grow programme.

  • Founder & Director, EXALTA Business Growth Limited, 2017 to present

  • CEO, WILA Lighting Limited, 1993 to 2017

  • Senior Advisor, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

  • Trustee, Worshipful Company of Lightmongers, member since 1997

  • Chairman, Institute of Directors, Oxfordshire

  • President, Lighting Industry Federation

  • Chairman, Lumicom NFP WEEE Recycling Scheme

  • Mentor, OxLEP Business Growth Hub and Oxford Brookes University Help to Grow Programme

Let's talk

If your business is at the point where what got you here stops working, or you can see it coming, we should talk.

Mike | mike@exalta.co.uk| +44 (0)7785 904230

About EXALTA - forty years of building, running, growing and ultimately selling a business, is what I bring to the owner-managers I work with today. Not a framework. Not a methodology. The real thing.