Our Senior Leadership Team

John has been with the BES Group as Group Chief Executive Officer since September 2022.  He is an accomplished board level leader having spent many years in several Managing Director roles in Private Equity (PE), FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 organisations.  He is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors who has had a significant impact on companies including Modualire Group, G4S, Brinks, BT and Teletech during his career so far. 

 In this position with the BES Group, he is responsible for the overall success of our company, working with our Senior Executive Team and all stakeholders to design, develop and implement our strategic plans and ensure we continue to deliver these through growth, efficiencies, cost control and strong bottom-line results. 

 Helping drive the ongoing growth of the BES Group, both organically and by acquisition, is a priority for our Group CEO.  He is focused on ensuring we are always working as a trusted advisor for our external partners.  From employing the very best team to developing bespoke and innovative ways of working, delivering an industry leading, safety focused solution for our customers is always at the forefront of his priorities. 

 John enjoys leading highly successful teams to ‘achieve purpose’.  This, combined with his in-depth understanding of our sector, having studied electrical and electronic engineering at University, as well as welcoming five new companies to the BES Group in his first year with the company, allows the organisation to provide value added services across our suite of solutions to our clients.
He is a people focused, hands on leader, known by our team, our customers and our broker and affinity partners alike.  The BES Group has an exciting future with John and our Senior Executive Team leading the way. 

Joining us from Inflexion, our Private Equity (PE) investors, in 2022, John brings a wealth of valuable experience and knowledge.  His career spans more than 20 years, made up of time in director level roles with leading investment banking and private equity companies.  He has been an active member of the BES Group board, both as an Inflexion partner and, more recently as a member of the BES Group Senior Executive Team for a number of years, helping drive the ongoing success of our business. 

In his role of Group Corporate Development Director, he has overall responsibility for our growth by acquisition.  He is instrumental in helping shape the future landscape of our company, working with his team to determine potential acquisitions and the benefits each of these will bring to both our team and our customers. 

John works closely with our Group CEO, Group CFO and wider Senior Executive Team to help ensure our business strategy supports the ongoing growth of the BES Group and the end-to-end risk management needs of our customers.   

John has a useful understanding of the Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance sector, including the benefits being an independent company brings both our team and our external partners. 

With international growth key to the long-term future of the BES Group, John and his team are integral to seeing this take place over the coming months and years.  

Hannah is the longest serving member of the BES Group Senior Executive Team, having joined the company in 2015 just weeks after it was formed as an independent business.  With more than 15 years spent in senior HR roles for RSA, FTSE 100, international insurance organisation prior to her current role, she has significant experience in leading large business impact programmes and developing the highest performing teams.   

 As Group HR Director for the BES Group, Hannah has overall responsibility for our Human Resources function.  Along with core HR services and support, this also includes Recruitment, Communications and Engagement to ensure the very best experience for our team and our external partners.   

Her knowledge and experience of the Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance (TICC) sectors has been built up over many years, giving her an in depth understanding of our people and their needs.  Her commercial awareness, combined with her focus on helping ensure we are always operating with an industry leading team is key to shaping the future of the BES Group. 

Hannah is a hands on, innovative leader, instrumental in ensuring the culture of our business is diverse and inclusive and encourages our people to truly be themselves while carrying out their role.  She has been instrumental in developing our brand as an employer since she joined in 2015, ensuring we attract and recruit the right people as we grow our team. 

During her HR career, she has become an expert in business transformation and other efficiency centric projects.  She is extremely experienced in the Private Equity industry and was part of the leadership team who supported our 2021 reinvestment activity.   

James joined the BES Group from Liberty Specialty Markets in 2022, where he spent five years in Chief Financial Officer level roles.  With more than 15 years in director level positions for large international insurance companies, including RSA prior to joining Liberty Specialty Markets, he has significant experience in FCA regulated industries.  He has spent many years leading businesses through impressive growth, including helping implement large merger and acquisition plans. 

As Group CFO for the BES Group, he has overall responsibility for our complete finance and IT functions.  From reporting annually on our financial performance to ensuring our customers know when and how to pay us for our services, James and team are vital to ensuring we continue to operate efficiently and effectively across the BES Group.   

He works closely with his Senior Executive Team (SET) colleagues to outline and agree budgets and growth targets, while also making sure they are kept up to date on the financial performance of the complete BES Group.  As a result of his IT responsibility, he also ensures we are continually enhancing our ways of working for both our customers and our team. 

 His experience in the wider insurance industry prior to joining our company means James has a thorough understanding of the needs of our Broker partners and our Private Equity investors.  These skills and experience continue to be extremely useful in his position of Group Chief Financial Officer for the BES Group.  

As Group CFO James’ team works across the complete BES Group, helping shape the future of our company as we continue to grow and develop. 

With more than 30 years’ experience in senior board level roles across multiple sectors, Trace is a valuable member of the BES Group team.  Having spent time in the most senior business development focused roles at organisations including Algeco, G4S and Coveris, he has been instrumental in helping drive and shape the organic growth of a number of businesses during his career.  

Trace has been a part of the BES Group team as Group Chief Customer and Commercial Officer (CCO) since March 2023.  His role is integral to the ongoing growth and success of our company, with large customer and broker relationships and organic business growth the responsibility of his wider team. 

He has overall leadership of several key functions including Marketing, Key Account Management and Direct sales, for example, all of which play an important part in keeping the BES Group moving forward.   

As we continue to grow by acquisition and enhance our end-to-end risk management solutions, Trace and his team are vital to ensuring we are leveraging cross sell opportunities by helping our customers understand the breadth of our solutions.     

In his role of CCO, he is a valuable member of our Senior Executive Team (SET), helping shape and deliver the BES Group business strategy.  Like a number of his SET colleagues, he has extensive experience working in director level roles for Private Equity owned businesses.