Mentoring

Michael Wakeham is the founder of Brynley Knight, a senior strategic and operational partner for founders and business owners who want to move faster, think clearer, and build something that lasts. With over twenty years inside SMEs as a director and operational leader, Mike brings a perspective few advisors can match — not theory borrowed from corporate, but hard-won pattern recognition from doing the actual work. He has founded, built and sold a recruitment business; led the due diligence and acquisition of an SME; designed and implemented ERP systems; restructured finance functions; managed multi-million-pound client portfolios; and grown a regional franchise network from £14m to £16m as the strongest performing region nationally. His experience spans recruitment, franchising, corporate healthcare, medico-legal and logistics. An MSc in Psychology shapes how Mike approaches problems. Most issues founders bring to him turn out to be human problems wearing an operational disguise, and the work sticks because it addresses why things weren’t working, not just what. If you’re a founder feeling stuck, stretched, or simply unsure what to fix first, Mike offers a clear-eyed outside perspective and practical support to help you move forward with confidence. Through Brynley Knight, Mike works across three areas: Direction (strategy, founder development and exits), Structure (operations, finance, technology and governance) and Team (people strategy, sales and marketing). Mike is also an Advisory Board Member at Arden University, applying organisational psychology to the realities of running SMEs. Direct, commercially grounded, and built for honest conversations.