Philip Treanor and Sharon Kennett join Grant Thornton
Professional services firm Grant Thornton has hired two experienced industry experts to expand its Growth 365 team in the region. Philip Treanor and Sharon Kennett join from the corporate finance and strategic marketing spaces, respectively.
Understanding what growth is right for a business and managing change while a company expands are two common challenges for businesses looking to grow proportionally. In a market suddenly bursting with a glut of rapidly expanding start-ups, then, scaling a company sustainably has become a vitally important issue for many new clients of the consulting industry. Tapping into this, Grant Thornton’s Growth 365 team consists of a group of entrepreneurs and CEOs who have grown mid-market businesses, helping ambitious business leaders and their leadership teams address their biggest challenges.
Growth 365 is offered nationally, and has received healthy interest since being rolled out across Grant Thornton’s UK arm. Earlier in the year, this saw Nicola Thomas and Vikki Macleod join the team of entrepreneurs, in response to keen demand in Scotland. Now, Grant Thornton has further strengthened its Growth 365 team with the appointments of Sharon Kennett and Philip Treanor in the North West region.
Commenting on the appointments, Carl Williams, North West managing partner at Grant Thornton, said, “We’re continually adding to the diverse mix of advisers who support the leaders accessing our Growth 365 service. Sharon’s expertise in high-level marketing strategy and insight, and Phil’s blend of commercial experience and corporate deal making, add distinct but complementary skills to an already strong team. Both understand the pain points faced by leaders looking to scale and unlock new market opportunities, and I have no doubt their counsel will be of real value to our clients.”
Sharon Kennett brings more than three decades of experience in strategic marketing, brand development and internal communications to the firm. Her most recent role was as marketing director for Frontier, the UK’s largest agricultural business, which has a turnover of more £1.5 billion. She has worked both agency and client-side, advising the C-suite of internationally-trading businesses operating in multiple industries, including agriculture, pharmaceutical, international food and beverage export, and engineering.
Kennett said of her new challenge, “The international connections and data-driven insights afforded by the 365 service are pitched perfectly for CEOs and entrepreneurs leading high-growth businesses. I’m delighted to be joining the firm and look forward to adding my strategic marketing and branding skillset to the offer in the North West.”
Philip Treanor also joins the Growth 365 team in the North West. An experienced commercial director with a strong legal and corporate finance background spanning almost 30 years, between 1993 and 2014 Treanor worked for some of the region’s most active corporate law firms including Addleshaw Goddard, Brabners and Pannone, heading up the latter’s corporate department as an equity partner. In 2014, Treanor became a commercial director for power distribution and protection equipment manufacturer, Mardix. During a four-year tenure, he worked with the management team to more than double EBITDA and turnover.
Treanor remarked, “The corporate finance team at Grant Thornton is working with some of the most dynamic mid-market companies in the region. There’s a real demand from ambitious growth and exit-focused management teams for the consultancy provided by the Growth 365 service, and I’m incredibly pleased to join the team.”
