Round Table Discussion: Growth Through Mergers & Acquisition

If you’re looking to expand into new markets, gain a competitive edge or acquire new talent, mergers or acquisitions (M&A) may be the answer. One of the most popular business strategies, M&A are one of the fastest ways to achieve growth – but, as with any big business decision, it’s not without risk.

In our round table discussion led by Kieron Goldsborough of Narrative and Katherine Richards, Ward Hadaway, we will explore the power of M&A in more detail. In particular, we’ll focus on: how to use M&A to boost your growth plans, considerations to make when contemplating an M&A and what to expect at every stage of the M&A journey.

Our round tables are shaped by your views and experience, so while we hope to cover the topics above, we may discuss other subjects related to M&A during the session.

About our hosts

Katherine is a partner in Ward Hadaway's Corporate department, and has been providing advice on mergers and acquisitions, sales, IBOs, MBOs and venture capital transactions for more than 20 years.

She acts for a range of company sizes from large corporates to start-ups and everything in between. She even acts for a number of private equity houses.

In addition, Katherine has experience advising both management teams and financial institutions on management buyouts/buy ins, private equity and development capital transactions.

Kieron is Managing Director of Different Narrative.

Kieron is an entrepreneurial leader with over 20 years’ experience in brand marketing.

Starting his career as a designer in an in-house role, Kieron quickly moved agency side, before spending six years in design and management roles within Trinity Mirror North East.

In 2011, Kieron became Creative Director at Press Ahead, where the Narrative story began, having moved into position as Managing Director in 2014 he then built Narrative.

Earlier this year Different Advertising, Design and Marketing and Narrative Integrated Communications merged to become Different Narrative, creating the region’s largest end-to-end marketing services provider.

Besides championing the power of marketing, Kieron is a big supporter of up and coming talent, volunteering to support and mentor at both The Northern School of Art, Teesside University and Newcastle University. He is also City Head for Newcastle and North East for the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising).

The small print - Due to limited capacity Round Table Discussions are exclusively for entrepreneurial members of the Forum.