The Business Enterprise Fund Team

Don Cartlidge Business Development Manager

Don joins BEF after a career covering a large number of industry sectors and having a huge amount of experience running businesses at director level. Don is a trained engineer and has been involved in consultancy for a number of years.

Joanne Green Book Keeper

Joanne joins us fresh from running her own book keeping business. AAT qualified and part qualified as an accountant Joanne is keen to bring her skills to BEA to support our clients and develop the service.

Steve Waud Fund Director

Steve, along with Malcolm Swallow, launched the fund back in November 2004 with £360k to lend in the Bradford district. Since then the fund has grown to around £3million and now covers West and North Yorkshire.

Steve’s background is in corporate recovery and has worked in sectors as diverse as Brand Marketing and the Automotive sectors.

He is a non exec director of the CDFA and is a keen advocate for the Community Development Finance Sector.

Brian Hatcher Business Mentor (Legi Leeds)

Brian worked in banking for 34 years as a lending manager, as well as regional manager for the bank’s International Division, and latterly the Factoring and Invoice Discounting Division. Joined West Yorkshire Enterprise Agency in May 2000 to start up and run one of the first Government backed loan schemes, for businesses which couldn’t get funding from the main stream. Joined the Business Enterprise Fund in February 2006, as mentor for the businesses which had obtained funding from this source. Currently director of two Social Enterprises in West Yorkshire

Richard Wharton Business Mentor (Legi Leeds)

Richard comes from a business banking background of over 30 years and has since been involved in assisting smaller businesses through Business Link, Leeds Chamber and EastBank Regeneration Project. He also works closely with businesses based at the Leeds Metropolitan University Business Incubator. Is a director of and works with several companies from engineering to debt management.

Suzy Longbottom Fund Administrator

Fund Administrator

Malcolm Swallow Technical fund Manager

Malcolm has been assisting small businesses for over twenty-five years, in particular with access to finance and business planning support.
Under a bursary from the Small Business Service he received training to better understand the target clientele for this type of Loan fund then undertook the research and preparatory work to establish the BEF.

Malcolm is a member of the Credit Committee and, working closely with the Fund Director, is responsible for ensuring that the operation of the Fund complies with the Consumer Credit Act (CCA).  He also assists the Director to devise new products and investigate other sources of assistance to meet the ever changing demand of our customers. 

John Sims Professional Services Advisor

John has a strong background in start-up businesses and business support. He has wide experience in setting up small businesses. He has worked within the business support network for a number of years and has excellent contacts.

Tariq Ismail Business Buddy

Tariq has spent a number of years as a business advisor for small businesses, working within the Bradford District. Prior to that he was also general manager of a large multi-million pound textile company. As well as serving in the Merchant Navy, Tariq has a broad experience of international trade.

Meg Heath Business mentor

Meg has been a consultant for a number of years, which has taken her all over the world. Her speciality is marketing and she has worked with a number of major brands on the development of new products and brought these successfully to the market.

Colin Nesbitt Business Buddy

Colin has several years experience running his own business - starting off with just an idea to selling his business to Panasonic. He has dealt with major corporate companies, and his skill base is in both marketing and sales. 

Colin is capable of offering advice at all levels of support.

Having had his own business, Colin is aware of many of the pitfalls and problems new young businesses face

Ray Walker Business Mentor

Ray has a vast amount of experience working at senior levels within some of the UK’s leading PLCs. Most recently, Ray was a special business advisor for BLWY. Prior to joining the fund, Ray had been a consultant working with a number of SMEs at a strategic level. He has an MBA from Durham University.