Samantha Porteous

Sam has worked for over 30 years in a range of companies from large corporates to private equity backed entities and smaller privately owned businesses. She started out her working life as an accountant, working at two large global information companies.  At the age of 30, she became CFO at one of these, responsible for a global team of up to 200 people, working out of Philadelphia and London. Following this, she was CFO of a fast growing, marketing business, which was undergoing investment from private equity firms. Her role expanded to COO and then in 2009 to CEO, taking over from the founder. She doubled the size of the business during her tenure, taking on further private equity investment, and ultimately floating the business on AIM in 2014. One of her biggest successes was the development of her team to take on the management of the business as she became a Non Exec Director (NED).

Since leaving full time employment, she has taken on a number of NED roles:

• Chairman of a digital marketing agency helping management to take it through to a successful trade sale at the end of 2017.
• She currently holds two non-exec directorships in start-ups/privately backed businesses.
• Trustee of a charity helping underprivileged children.

Outside of work she loves to continue growing and learning. Over the last few years she has qualified as a yoga instructor and an Executive Coach, has taken her skiing to advanced level, and has recently started to learn to climb to overcome a fear of heights