Ian Brookes

Ian Brookes BA, ACA, MBA, Managing Director and Finance Director

Ian, 45, has a first class honours degree in Accounting & Maths. He qualified as a Chartered

Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1986 and gained an MBA in 1996. Ian spent a number

of years with Price Waterhouse Management Consultants before setting up his own

Consulting business.

He sold this business to Lorien, joining as Finance Director. In this role, he took the business

to AIM, being one of the first ten companies when AIM opened in 1995, and subsequently a

Main Market listing. He resigned from the company as Group Managing Director in July

2007. Lorien plc was one of the UK’s largest IT and Business Services companies, with

£150 million turnover in 2006.

A founder director of Fortune Exchange, a joint-venture with Manchester University,

providing business support and mentoring services to the Manchester Science & Enterprise

Company, he is an Investment Director of Acceleris plc, an investment company which

provides funding to support early and development stage businesses. An Arts Council North

West Board Bank director, Ian was made a Freeman of the City of London in 2006 and

elected as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists in 2007. He

is also an advisor to The Darwen Aldridge Community Academy, where the specialism is

entrepreneurship.