Thistle Initiatives appoints Scott Friedrichs as CEO

Scott Friedrichs has joined Thistle Initiatives as the consultancy’s CEO. He will now work to help execute expansion plans across the sector. 

Friedrichs stated, “I’m thrilled to be joining Thistle Initiatives at such an exciting point in its growth. The firm has a hugely talented group of consultants and an ambitious leadership team that’s clearly driving the business forward. Having spent the last 25 years of my career in the United States consultancy market, I’m looking forward to bringing a fresh perspective and spearheading Thistle’s continued expansion.”  

Founded in 2012, Thistle Initiatives provides advisory services in regulatory compliance, financial crime, and change and transformation. The firm’s 70-plus team of financial specialists, compliance officers, former regulators, and lawyers provides expert support across FCA authorisations, acquisition due diligence, change and transformation, and other projects for more than 1,000 firms in the financial services sector, including banks, insurers, and investment and advice firms.

Prior to joining Thistle, Friedrichs served as senior managing director and global head of life sciences at North Highland. He previously also worked as director for the Americas at BIP, where he built a US consulting business from a team of five to over 30. Earlier, he spent two decades at PA Consulting, where he held multiple leadership roles including Americas head of business transformation and global co-lead of project management consulting.

Looking ahead, a release from the firm said the appointment “heralds a broadening of Thistle Initiative’s focus from compliance consulting, a field in which they have won multiple awards, to management consulting across the financial services sector.”

This will include an expanded scope, embedding regulatory compliance, financial crime prevention, and governance expertise directly into clients’ transformation initiatives. These are areas which have already seen rapid growth for the firm, and it hopes to build on this momentum.

Non-executive Chair Martin Wassell added, “We’re delighted to welcome Scott to Thistle Initiatives as our new CEO. Growth remains at the heart of our strategy as we continue to expand our support for clients across the financial services sector, from our long-standing strengths in M&A due diligence and compliance, to newer areas such as financial crime, digital assets, and change and transformation. Scott’s leadership and fresh perspective will be invaluable as we build on this momentum and take Thistle into its next phase of development.”