"The Transition to Portfolio programme accelerated my move into advisory roles, giving me the confidence, tools, and connections to build a balanced and meaningful portfolio career."
I bring 35 years of global experience across energy and petrochemicals, having worked on multiple continents in senior leadership roles. My skillset spans operations, strategy, trading, and commercial leadership, with significant board and stakeholder engagement experience.
After taking early semi-retirement in 2024, I was keen to apply my experience to support startups and scale-ups. Reconnecting with Connectd gave me a structured entry point into the portfolio space, which I had previously considered.
The programme helped me secure four active advisory roles, two of which have evolved into paid fractional CCO positions. It gave me the platform to engage with founders meaningfully and build a well-balanced portfolio career in terms of interests and time commitments.
The CV refresh and advisor training helped me reposition my experience for the startup space. The mentorship added practical guidance on structuring my advisory work, and the startup platform enabled direct founder engagement that quickly led to new roles.
They gave me the confidence and clarity to approach portfolio work professionally from refining my positioning to structuring engagements efficiently and aligning expectations with founders.
Early on, I learned the importance of setting myself up formally as a company. That small step helped define how I work with founders, added credibility, and made operations smoother from the start.
Absolutely. The programme accelerated my transition into a portfolio career, equipped me with the right tools and connections, and gave me confidence to take on meaningful roles with startups.
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