Sean Smith
West Kent
Before joining Business Doctors, Sean spent 15 years running companies of all sizes in freight, supply chain and logistics. But it wasn’t always so.
With an exceptionally strong head for numbers, Sean began his working life at 18 as a Derivative Trader in the City of London. After a whirlwind decade trading for Japanese Investment Bank Daiwa Securities, Sean set up as an independent trader in foreign exchange and private derivatives.
On hitting 30, Hoo Peninsula born Sean wanted out of the frenetic ways of the city and moved back to Kent to help his father turn around an ailing family firm.
When he joined Heathrow Airport-based Teamwork GTS in 2003, the family freight company was under threat of bankruptcy, with half a million pounds of debts. On investigation, Sean uncovered a whole raft of bad decisions made by the then Financial Director. Taking over responsibility for financial control, he released most of the accounts team and set about turning around the ten-year-old company.
Unanimously nominated as MD, Sean went on to reform every aspect of the organisation and when the company was later sold to Kerry Logistics in 2008, it was achieving yearly profits in excess of £600K.
Sean stayed on for a further six years with the $3billion dollar Hong Kong headquartered giant, reporting to the MD of Europe and being appointed to the UK and Europe main boards. Profitability of the wider business under his control was up from £500K to over £1million by the time he moved on.
“Business is my passion,” says Sean. “I love making a difference and adding value to SMEs. I’m a great listener and get truly fired up by finding and implementing solutions to small and medium sized business owners’ problems. “Business owners can feel very isolated,” he says. “I know. I’ve been there.”
