Are you ready to find out about your Councillor?
An experienced CEO and Founder, with multiple successful businesses and exits covering FMCG, Design, Sales and Marketing, Business Advisory, Finance and Funding, and Equity Investment support. Since 2009, Gary has worked with 000’s of Founders to help them secure over £54m in equity, grants and Finance; built his own Angel Network of 1500 investors; and worked at UKRI Innovate UK (Exemplas) with some of the most cutting edge, UK innovators.
But he's also been a comedian, singer and TV warm up artist
Ok. Let’s go. Let me tell you the rest
First Steps in Business
In 1991, I joined a small T-shirt business in London, which we turned into one of the fastest-growing sportswear brands, Kick Sportswear. A humble, small T-shirt business that grew into a licensed sports apparel business built for the serious fan. Signing 44 football club licences, rugby, NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA, selling in every major retailer and sports shop in the UK.
We built a sales team and a distribution network across 14 countries, and took the business from £350,000 to £8 million in three years. It was sold in 1995 to the US brand Nutmeg Mill LLP for £1 million.
12 months as a consultant for the sports trade and fashion trade, building European distributor networks and licensing deals with the likes of Disney and football clubs across the UK and Europe, generating over £100 million in business for clients.
Burnt out, working 7 days a week, I needed a break!
The Sabbatical Nobody Expects
Here’s the bit most CVs leave out. After Kick was sold, I took a proper break from the business world and became a singer in Fuerteventura. Turned out I was decent at it. I moved to Tenerife and compared at one of the island’s most successful entertainment venues, The Full Monty, before heading to Los Angeles.
I compered the graveyard shift at the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, spent a short time with the scriptwriters of Malcolm in the Middle, and worked as an extra on a few Hollywood blockbusters. Remember Bedazzled? It’s not a normal five years for a businessman, but it taught me how to read a room and hold an audience, a skill that has never once stopped being useful in a council chamber or a boardroom.
Time for a change & Starting a Family
Then in 2001, I moved to Norwich after meeting my amazing wife Emma, and founded Dynamite Creative, a full-service advertising agency with 12 staff members.
In 2009, we started our family. First Phoebe, and a year later along came Sophie.
From small acorns
After talking to many small businesses, they all said access to finance and funding had become very difficult. Onerous form-filling and bureaucratic processes were putting Founders off applying. That’s when the Business Shaper Group was born.
We were already consulting on business turnaround projects, but this often led to needing cash to grow and scale. We had the tools to make investment decks pretty, simple to understand and to sell the sizzle, not the sausage, so we started to fill the gaps.
In a very short time, we were helping the New Anglia LEP connect with businesses to understand their grant process and write grant applications on behalf of our clients. We became quite good at it. Then came early stage Founders looking for investment and finally working on behalf of investors to source deals
During lockdown, I joined Innovate UK, as a Senior Investment and Finance Advisor. Supporting Innovation Specialists and their clients to navigate the world of equity funding and finance for growth-stage and scaling companies. I became the National Lead - InvestReady (Investment Readiness Diagnostic Tool) and developed an Investment Readiness Pilot in partnership with a major UK bank; 19 selected founders secured a total of £17m+ in equity funding.
May 9th 2026 - Coucillor @ Norfolk County Council
Scrutinising Norfolk County Council
Vice Chair Strategic and Corporate Select Committee
The Strategic and Corporate Select Committee is an overview and scrutiny committee at Norfolk County Council that checks and reviews the council’s high-level plans, use of money, and overall performance.
Exploring Revenue Generation for our Museums
Member Museum's Committee
The Numbers Behind the Rhetoric: What I Told the Scrutiny Committee
I spent the best part of
