People
The people behind the platform.
When you partner with EverGrowth, these are the people you deal with. Founders and operators, with an experienced board and institutional backing.
Co-Founder · Chief Executive
Chris West
Chris grew up around a family business and has felt first hand the blood, sweat and tears it takes to build one. It shaped everything about how EverGrowth treats the owners it partners with.
After a business and economics degree at Nottingham, Chris joined the Sainsbury's graduate scheme and spent nearly a decade in senior leadership roles, running large teams and significant P&Ls. He left a successful corporate career to do the harder, more meaningful thing: partnering with and building businesses, and giving owners a succession plan they can sign with confidence.
Chris leads strategy, people and new partnerships for the group. If you are an owner thinking about your next chapter, his is usually the first voice you will hear.
Co-Founder · Chief Operating Officer
Ferdie Ahmed
Ferdie has sat on the other side of the table. He built hospitality group Barrio Familia from a single site to five London venues, more than 120 staff and £7m of revenue, then sold it to a national operator. He knows exactly what it feels like to hand over something you built.
Before that he spent years in enterprise data, delivering complex programmes for blue-chip clients, and he remains an operator-investor through Clamshell Capital. The thread through all of it: strong teams, clear operating cadence and businesses that run on trust and good information.
Ferdie leads operations across the group: welcoming each new business in, building the shared services behind it and making sure every promise made at the table is kept once the deal is done.
The board
Experience that has built and grown businesses.
EverGrowth is run by its co-founders and governed by a board that has done this before. Our Chair and non-executive directors support and challenge the executive team.
Paul Barry
Paul chairs the EverGrowth board and has invested in the group. He founded Phenna Group in 2019 to partner with founder-led Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance businesses, and remains its Executive Chairman. More than 90 founders and entrepreneurs have joined Phenna, which employs more than 9,000 people across five continents and has revenues in excess of £850m. Before Phenna, he was chief executive and managing director of several international business services and consulting businesses, and across his career has led multiple rounds of financing, acquisitions and successful exits. His approach rests on long-term partnership and entrepreneurial freedom. He is also an Ambassador for Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People.
Jeremy Waud
Jeremy is a Non-Executive Director of EverGrowth, with more than 35 years’ experience in contract services and facilities management. He founded Incentive FM Group in 2001 and built it from scratch, organically and through acquisitions, into a national facilities management business delivering cleaning, window cleaning, M&E and consultancy services with its own people. He was Chairman when Incentive was sold to Atalian Servest in May 2022, with annual sales of £100m and some 3,000 staff. He is Managing Director of Net72, a marketing and digital business, and Chairman of Waud Wines Group.
Dane Houlahan
Dane is a Non-Executive Director of EverGrowth and a partner at Quercus International, where he advises listed and private companies, private equity and government on UK and international transactions. He has advised on more than 100 transactions across business services and the built environment. Earlier in his career he was a partner in KPMG’s corporate finance business, where he was UK Head of Business Services. A qualified lawyer, he is a non-executive director of several businesses, including the housebuilders Antler Homes and Alfred Homes.
Backing
Founder-led. Institutionally backed.
EverGrowth is run by its co-founders, with institutional backing to grow the group.
FourLeaf Capital
FourLeaf Capital is a London-based private equity firm led by Managing Partner Robyn Smith. It partners with founder-led businesses in the UK and Ireland, offering flexible capital and a collaborative approach that combines private equity and operational expertise. FourLeaf is backed by cornerstone institutional investment, but partners with Operator Investors (seasoned entrepreneurs and operators) on all its deals, in line with the firm’s ethos of entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs.
OakNorth
OakNorth, the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, is our senior debt partner. Launched in 2015 to lend to ambitious lower mid-market businesses that traditional banks underserve, it is the right fit for a founder-led group like ours. Its team took the time to understand our values and how we work with owners, and was impressed by our focus on keeping the strengths of the founder-led businesses that join the group.
Talk to a founder
Deal with the founders.
No gatekeepers. From the first call to completion, you deal directly with the co-founders of the group.
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