Built to Back: Preparing Your Company for Investment

Emma is a Chartered Management Accountant and Finance Director with over 15 years’ experience working with owner-managed businesses, start-ups and listed companies, including within highly acquisitive environments. Alongside her current role in private equity, she has led financial due diligence, business integration and strategic decision-making across multiple sectors, with a strong focus on growth, governance and commercial performance. Her experience gives her a practical understanding of what investors look for in a business, particularly around financial credibility, operational readiness and long-term value creation.

Farah is a commercial/technology lawyer with circa 15 years of experience working with businesses in the fintech and broader financial services sectors. She is now focused on online safeguarding and data intelligence, and on how tech can help protect reputation and engender trust and safety in the sport, legal, brand protection, and defence sectors.

Jonathan is the Corporate Finance Partner for Yorkshire. With more than 15 years’ corporate finance experience, as both adviser and investor, has completed transactions with an aggregate value of over £5bn. He joined Armstrong Watson in 2024 from Olympia Capital Partners and had previously worked in the M&A teams at PwC and Deloitte in London, before spending six years in Singapore as the Managing Director of a multi-billion dollar private investment group. He holds an MA and MBA from Manchester Business School and is an FCA Chartered Accountant.

Justine is a tax partner and head of the Leeds office as well as the Corporate and International team for Claritas Tax. She has over 25 years of tax experience working predominantly for Big 4 and mid-tier firms, mainly within corporate tax and advisory teams. Justine joined Claritas in June 2025, where, prior to this, she was a tax partner, heading up the corporate tax team in Leeds, as well as National Head of R&D and Patent Box at Saffery LLP. Justine has a keen interest in innovative and entrepreneurial companies, and on a day-to-day basis, provides tax advice to companies and owner-managed businesses across various sectors at all stages of their business lifecycle.