Founders preparing their business for investment or an eventual sale face a specific problem: knowing which levers actually increase enterprise value, and building a growth story that holds up under investor scrutiny. James helps them find those levers and prioritise the initiatives that matter most.

He’s a Fractional CFO based in Hermanus with 15 to 20 years of experience across South Africa, the UK and the US, working with SMEs and mid-tier businesses in logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, social impact and tourism. His approach combines strategic finance with operational insight, translating financial complexity into practical decisions around cash flow, profitability, working capital and capital efficiency. He designs founder-friendly reporting and dashboards that drive real accountability, and builds the finance systems and processes businesses need to become investment-ready. He’s a member of SAICA, and his full client history is on LinkedIn.

As Finance, Operations & ESG Director at Afrikelp, a private equity-backed business owned by Nedbank and RMB, he led the finance and operations functions through a period that required strengthening financial reporting, improving operational efficiency and profitability, supporting capital raising initiatives and restructurings, and building the governance and systems needed to scale.

James works best with founders, CEOs and managing directors who want a genuine thinking partner rather than someone who just produces reports, and he’s just as comfortable adding capacity alongside an existing CFO or finance team on high-impact projects. His belief is straightforward: finance should make decisions simpler, not more complicated.