Max is the owner of The Alternative Board in Derby and East Midlands Central. He is an experienced executive having spent 25 years running a variety of different companies ranging in size from £8m to £50m and from 40 people to 400. With a background in Marketing and Sales with Brands such as Pretty Polly and Hush Puppies, he then moved into General Management with Mattel Toys in Amsterdam, with responsibility for Eastern Europe, The Middle East and Africa.

Deciding it was time to move back to the UK in time for the important schooling years for his boys, and to leave the big Corporate world behind, Max took over as CEO of Maclaren pushchairs in Northamptonshire before spending time as MD/CEO of manufacturing companies in Housewares, Decorating Products and latterly Furniture, for a number of Private Equity owners.

In 15 years of running SMEs Max has experienced nearly everything that the business world can throw at you including acquisitions and disposals; people challenges; factory relocations and closures; more people challenges; cash flow dramas; opening new channels of distribution; yet more people challenges; managing rapid growth, and finally, more people challenges! He learned the hard way that running SMEs can be a very lonely experience and being able to “swap notes” with fellow business owners was a massive benefit. He formed his own unofficial Peer Board with a number of contemporaries in non-competing businesses within the DIY products sector and that experience is ultimately what attracted him to The Alternative Board.

Now firmly established as a business coach and advisor, Max has a passion for helping business owners get to the heart of the challenges that they face and to calmly put in place solutions to help them achieve their objectives. If all of this can be achieved whilst walking his dogs or hitting a golf ball, then even better!