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Careers

Level Up: Meet the Board - Tim Clay

Jamie Thomas

The Level Up Accelerator is now in full flow and our team are enjoying working with a fantastic cohort of nine north-Wales-based businesses operating in the science and technology sectors.

Working hard to help the nine businesses on the cohort grow and thrive are the programme’s Advisory Board, who are committed to helping them take their businesses to the next level with their expert mentoring.

One of our fantastic Advisory Board Members is Tim Clay, a Bangor University alumni with nearly 40 years of experience advising professionals, business owners and high net worth individuals. We met up with him recently to find out more about how much he is enjoying being a part of Level Up.

“I’ve got some financial knowledge, some knowledge of setting up a business, running a business and exiting a business.

“The sort of work I do – which is based on financial planning – is mainly with entrepreneurs who have quite a lot of money that needs investing, and a lot of those have been clients for 10, 20 or 30 years.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve got any particular skillsets, but I do have a lot of experience and a good network of people I deal with in the corporate world, mainly in Birmingham and London, and they may be people I can make introductions to as the programme progresses.”

The Level Up Board have already had their first sessions meeting and advising the businesses on the cohort and further coaching sessions are coming up thick and fast in the next few weeks.

Tim discussed what he has enjoyed about the programme thus far and what he hopes he and his fellow Advisory Board Members can help the cohort accomplish by the end of the programme.

The most important thing at an early stage is the people. Of course, you must have an idea that stands on its own two feet, but the people are vital as they are what make a business, and there are some very impressive people on the cohort, definitely, so I’ve enjoyed our first session getting to meet them.

We’re here to give them the help and guidance they need and it is fascinating to be a part of. By the end of the cohort, we hope we’ve given some better focus on how to take their ideas to market, how to raise finance and where form, as well as general advice on how to structure their business.

You go through some tough times building a business from scratch, so if you’ve got some people around you who have been through it that can provide some practical and moral support then that is probably how we can best support these businesses in our role as advisors and mentors.” 

Olu Peyrasse, profile photo, sitting on a sofa

Want to know more about Level Up?

Get in touch with our Accelerator Programme Lead, Olu, who will be happy to help.