Ross Radford CA(SA), FCMA, CGMA, a Big Four-trained Chartered Accountant and Chartered Management Accountant with 20+ years' experience across finance leadership, FP&A, corporate finance and audit in regulated, high-growth and professional services businesses.

Most recently Finance Director at Redington Ltd, where he progressed through Finance Manager, Head of FP&A, Interim CFO and Finance Director, and supported two major transactions: the sale of a majority stake to private equity and the later acquisition by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Phoenix Advisory was founded out of a clear conviction: that founder-led businesses can have CFO-level insight without the cost or complexity of a full-time hire, and that the right financial partnership improves the numbers and supports the founder behind them. The aim is to help founders build clarity, stability and momentum into their businesses, so they can scale profitably while designing the life they want to lead.

Ross Radford at the Dragon's Back Race in Wales
Dragon's Back Race · Wales · 2025

A community of founder-led health optimisation brands where passion, purpose and profit are in balance, and the business funds the life behind it.

To give founders the financial clarity, calm and confidence to build extraordinary businesses without the grind, and the freedom to enjoy the life behind the work.

  • CA(SA): Chartered Accountant (South Africa Institute of Chartered Accountants)
  • FCMA, CGMA: Fellow Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CIMA)
  • CIMA Member in Practice
  • Big Four trained (PwC South Africa)
  • Certified Professional Business Advisor
  • L1 Xero Certified Associate
  • Member of the AI Finance Club, a global community of CFOs and finance professionals focused on practical applications of AI across finance workflows, reporting and analysis
CA(SA) FCMA · CGMA PWC TRAINED CIMA MIP XERO CERTIFIED AI FINANCE CLUB

Background

20+ years across senior finance: Big Four audit at PwC, corporate finance in Johannesburg, pricing leadership at Hogan Lovells, and finance leadership through to Finance Director and Interim CFO at Redington Ltd. The work has spanned finance transformation, board and investor reporting, FP&A, regulatory and FCA reporting, transactions and due diligence, and the design of finance systems and processes that scale. Ross now applies that experience through Phoenix Advisory to founders building the next generation of UK brands.

Sport and finance, for me, are closer than they look.

A personal note. I come to this work from both sides. Twenty years in senior finance, and a personal life built around endurance sport: previously triathlon and open water swimming, now ultra trail running.

I completed last year's Dragon's Back Race in Wales, a multi-day mountain ultra across the spine of the country, and have the Madeira Ultra X and South Africa Ultra X ahead. I'm the customer these brands are trying to reach. I train seriously, I care about what I put in my body, and I think hard about the products I buy. That gives me a useful vantage point alongside the finance work.

"Both reward steady judgement, consistent pacing, preparation, and the discipline to keep doing the right things over a long horizon. The mindset I bring to running is the mindset I bring to founders: calm, structured, resilient, and focused on what drives the next mile."

A few principles I hold to.

  • Clear thinking that cuts through the noise
  • Practical advice, grounded in the business in front of us
  • Calm, credible support when the pressure is on
  • Structured progress that keeps the business out of firefighting
  • Business performance that supports the life behind the work
  • Honesty about scope, including when the answer isn't Phoenix Advisory

The values that shape the practice.

— CRAFT

The quiet discipline of excellent work. Details handled properly, harder questions thought through carefully.

— GROWTH

Continuous improvement. We approach our craft the way our clients approach their health: new methods tested as they emerge, adopted where they make the work better.

— FREEDOM

A lifestyle business by design. Phoenix is built to support the lives behind the work, for the team, and for the founders we work with.

— SERVICE

The work serves the client. What matters is that founders get useful answers, whether from us, from their existing team, or from a referral we make.

— BALANCE

A sustainable pace. The work is built to last, with long-horizon thinking, for the practice and for the businesses we serve.

A structured advisory framework that runs inside engagements.

Inside engagements I work to a structured advisory framework called Reignite, a 3×3 grid of nine strategies across Clarity, Stability and Momentum, working through the Foundations, Performance and Direction layers of the business. It is a way of making sure the work compounds rather than scatters.

Read about the Reignite framework →

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