Our boards are located at carefully selected venues throughout the UK.
Creating spaces for local business leaders to share knowledge, find innovative solutions, challenge each other and harness the power of their peers.
Meet our growing network of peer2peer Chairs
Simon H-C
Dorset & Hampshire
Inspiring co-founder of peer2peer. Successfully running Bournemouth and Southampton franchises of the global DPD Group since 2001. An obsessive passion and incredible business knowledge, having worked with some of the most successful brands in the world. Simon understands the support that business leaders really need to overcome challenges and drive growth and he has a contagious zest for helping peer2peer members to thrive in all aspects of their life.
Christophe Stourton
Bristol & Bath
A business founder and manager of various businesses over 25 years, mainly in the Creative Industries, Christophe now combines this experience with training as an SME Business Coach; offering a tenacious brand of coaching to business owners in the South West of England and beyond. He also has experience as a communications consultant, facilitating events and shaping conference agendas and content for large international businesses around the world.
Claire Bartlett
Dorset & Hampshire
Inspiring, energetic and pragmatic, Claire has the gift for making things happen. Her skill and expertise enable her to support businesses in understanding their customer journey, the importance of strategic planning, operational implementation and project management. Claire’s energy is contagious, and she thrives on partnering with her clients to navigate through the challenges and opportunities of running your own business.
John Acton
North London & Hertfordshire
Innovative co-founder of peer2peer and Managing Partner (Europe) of the global consultancy Decision Processes International (DPI). Former Executive Vice President of the global DPD Group. John has a natural passion for strategy, innovation and disruption. He has a gift for facilitation and a relentless energy for helping other business owners on their journey to success.
Claire Fitzhenry
Bournemouth
Claire is an energetic, inspiring Business and Lifestyle Coach who is passionate about supporting business leaders to thrive both personally and professionally. With over a decade of experience in the Wellbeing industry, Claire understands the importance of supporting business leaders to grow their business, without sacrificing the things that matter most.
Hugh Skinner
Yorkshire
A business leader with a passion for supporting companies to excel in sales and growth. Hugh thrives in demanding, energetic environments and leverages his leadership experience from his time running business channels in the City, delivering GAGR growth of 20% over multiple years, underpinned by distribution strategies delivering consistent +25% margin based on five-year business planning and execution. He upholds the highest standards of best practice when engaging with individuals to support them to achieve objectives.
Hayley Meakes
Hertfordshire
Hayley owns and runs a full-service marketing agency and has over 20-years marketing experience – agency and client side. She’s won four national awards for effective marketing on a small budget and specialises in helping people move their business, brand and people forward. Hayley is also an international mindset coach and was named one of the Top 20 Mindset Coaches in the World by Coach Foundation. She has worked with and interviewed global business heads, multi-millionaires and sports icons about their mindset and coached mentees to improve their mindset, wellbeing, and business.
Paul Wallis
Southampton & Portsmouth
Founder of family business, Hantec Systems, an ISO management consultancy since 1995. Driven by his expert knowledge of company governance, risk management and strategic growth, Paul has an incredible knowledge of scaling to exit to share with his members alongside a unique passion for business compliance. His pragmatic approach is based on extensive experience building and growing businesses in consultancy, security screening and manufacturing.
Ian Bishop
Bedfordshire & North Hertfordshire
Ian has over 25 years hands-on leadership experience in direct sales, sales training and building the customer experience in both B2B and B2C sectors. Ian’s credibility, knowledge and motivation to lead an inclusive, enlightening – yet challenging board, is obvious as soon as you meet him. Helping members to exceed their potential through the creation of a high performing business culture and strong personal identify are two of his specialisms.
Neil Armstrong
Purbeck
Neil is a focused, experienced and entrepreneurial marketing strategist, business consultant and Publisher. His particular strengths are in business development, lead acquisition, strategic planning, building relationships and revenue creation. With over 30 years at the helm of a number of business support and creative organisations, Neil is a people person, mentor and connector, who cherishes creativity, is passionate about communication, loves growing businesses and is a champion for his clients, colleagues, partners and close network.
Matt Clarke
North Hertfordshire
Matt is a dynamic leader with over 28 years experience in the military and business sectors. After a five-year tenure in the British Army, Matt moved into the business world, quickly progressing within MCP. In 2018, he took over the family business, and spearheaded its growth and success. Matt has founded nine businesses across different industries, demonstrating an exceptional ability to turn ideas into thriving enterprises. As a coach and mentor, he is dedicated to fostering growth and innovation and strongly believes in the power of peer-to-peer learning and development.
Peter Woods
Northamptonshire & Buckinghamshire
A dynamic and accomplished leader, renowned for executive level engagement, strategic planning and financial expertise. A 30-year career in Financial Services in the City of London. A member of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Peter’s success as a business coach is credited to his structured and persistent approach combined with his knowledge and dedication.
Steve Knowles
Sheffield
Chartered Accountant. Business Advisor. Mentor of the Year 2011 by Connect Yorkshire. Shortlisted for Advisor of the Year 2019 at the Yorkshire Accountancy Awards. After successfully running his own practice for 35 years, he’s now Chairman of the practice, allowing Steve to focus on his true passion – mentoring business owners and entrepreneurs.
Miles Mather
Farnborough
Miles is an energetic, inspiring, and empathetic coach and facilitator. He is skilled at building trust and rapport at all levels including C-suite. He attained his advanced certificate in professional coaching EMCC in 2021 and has over 1,000 hours of coaching experience. He previously worked as a consultant for 18 years in senior commercial roles to support transformation and commercial growth for companies including BBC, Barclays, AMEX, HSBC, IHG, Vodafone and NBC Universal. Miles speaks French and Spanish, runs 100 mile ultra-marathons and is dad to 3 young children.
Dan Sagar
Hampshire
Dan Sagar is a business growth expert, coach, and advisor working with six- and seven-figure B2B business owners across the UK. Having built and scaled multiple businesses of his own, Dan knows firsthand what it takes to grow a business. His approach blends strategic thinking with hands-on accountability.
Whether it's simplifying a complex challenge, spotting opportunities others miss, or helping business owners grow with confidence, Dan focuses on better systems, confident decision-making, increased profitability, improved operations, and regaining control of time.
Michael Horsley
Ilkley
With a global background in manufacturing and SaaS, Michael helps businesses to grow by bridging strategic and operational gaps. Having spent over a decade building customer-facing functions for US SaaS start-ups expanding into EMEA and APJ, today, he works with start-ups and scale-ups as a strategy advisor, fractional leader, and non-executive director, drawing on cross-functional experience in GTM, operations, HR, and commercial leadership. He supports companies through transitional phases. He also coaches individuals at pivotal points in their careers, from early talent to CEOs.
Pete Evans
Ilkley
Pete is a seasoned sales strategist with 30 years’ experience across corporate, coaching, and consultancy environments. He’s led business channels for FTSE All-Share companies and served as CEO of boutique coaching firms. As MD of Ventas Sales, Pete helps business owners and Sales Directors build scalable businesses through clear strategy, robust sales processes, and a culture of sales excellence. His approach blends data, analytics, and hands-on engagement to deliver tailored growth solutions.
Outside work, Pete is a dedicated runner and lives in Ilkley with his two dogs. He’s also a lifelong Wigan Warriors fan.
Gary Lawton
Brockenhurst
Gary is a Chartered Business Consultant who works with CEOs, boards and senior leaders to unlock growth, strengthen governance and build resilient organisations. With decades of experience advising businesses across multiple sectors, he brings clarity, structure and a fresh perspective to complex challenges. Gary is passionate about developing confident, innovative leaders who achieve sustainable success in both business and life.
Jon Gilbert
Somerset
Jon had a highly successful corporate career, operating at Director level for several leading automotive and technology businesses, before taking the leap into consulting and marketing services. Jon has a wealth of experience in helping businesses build strategies to grow, create an inclusive and inspiring culture for their people, and deepen engagement with customers. Jon is passionate about making business more people and customer-centric and fulfilling a responsibility to do good as well as make profit. He is a mentor who recognises communication is key in every relationship and treats every client as a unique entity, with a commitment to deliver growth.
Martin Ball
Reading
A results-driven Global Supply Chain professional with nearly 40 years of experience and a first-class record of delivering operational excellence and transformational change programmes across a wide range of industries, including FMCG, Drinks, Electronics and Consulting. Martin is a strong, enthusiastic leader with exceptional relationship management and people management capabilities, training, coaching and helping business owners to ensure a motivated team and successful service delivery at all times.
Rachel Foord
Oxfordshire
Rachel is a seasoned business leader and accredited coach with a passion for empowering entrepreneurs. Her career journey began in the fast-paced automotive industry and includes international leadership roles in communications and marketing across Asia and the Middle East. After successfully building and scaling her own six-figure design agency over 12 years, she transitioned to full-time business coaching. A four-time nominee for EC Coach of the Year, she brings a unique blend of real-world entrepreneurial experience and proven coaching expertise. Rachel is dedicated to helping business leaders gain clarity, master their fundamentals, and break through the barriers to growth.
torque is where ideas soar, it’s all torque and then action.
peer2peer is delighted to be the UK and Europe’s sole practitioner for the unique award-winning critical thinking frameworks of Decision Processes International (DPI). Since Mike Robert wrote his first best-selling business book and established the DPI consultancy in the USA over forty years ago, more than 3000 businesses globally have repeatedly used DPI’s critical thinking frameworks to out-think, outpace and outmanoeuvre their competition.
Our torque programmes are aimed specifically at improving the critical thinking of your leadership team and/or the next wave of leaders coming through your organisation. These programmes are usually a minimum of 12 months in duration.
torque’s Strategic Thinking – a strategy reset workshop to establish the future strategic profile of your business.
torque’s CrADLE – an innovation framework. CrADLE is an acronym for Create, Assess, Develop, Launch, Expand.
torque’s Stealth Threat – a powerful disruption thinking business game that facilitates your next wave of leaders in the design of a new ‘stealth competitor’ who could disrupt your whole industry.
How does accelerator work?
At times board members need additional guidance and one-to-one support from their Chair to reach their goals. This can be around:
Goals - identifying and gaining clarity on your goals
Systems – creating and implementing systems and process to support your goals
Focus - staying on course for your personal and business journey
Guidance – a different perspective on specific challenges and opportunities
Accountability and follow up - holding you to account and measuring progress between meetings to help accelerate your growth and get there faster!
By combining the collective wisdom and networking opportunities of a peer2peer board with the personalised, tailored support of accelerator, leaders can experience a more comprehensive approach to their growth and leadership development.
How do boards work?
peer2peer identifies and onboards impactful Chairs into our Chair community
each Chair hand-picks their own group of up to 15 non-competing leaders to form their peer2peer board
every Chair brings their own expertise and experience and has access to our workbooks, Chair community and CPD with peer2peer
board members and their Chair meet monthly for a half-day at a fixed location to work on their business and themselves
Why choose a peer2peer board?
Ten great heads are better than one
It’s no longer lonely at the top
Access to exceptional skill-building material and advice
Being held to account by your peers will expedite your journey
Peer boards are fun, and you deserve to love your flight!
What our members say
There’s a common theme in what our members tell us about their journey and how peer2peer helps them to 'get there':
Clarity - peer2peer helps you to gain clarity on your strategy, your direction, your next move Accountability - it’s so much easier and effortless when your Chair and peers hold you to account than when you try to do it alone Knowledge - continuous skill building through workbooks, resources, knowledge sharing, workshops, programs, recommendations Experience - share experience, gain experience, celebrate experience, benefit from others’ experiences and, most of all, enjoy the experience!
At peer2peer we love an acronym and we’re firm advocates of the fact that you really can have your CAKE and eat it!
Key criteria
Confidentiality - every Chair and Board member signs a confidentiality agreement
There are no competing members on the same board
Every Chair and board member is encouraged to complete a Contribution Compass personality profile
