The board
Charles Dickson
Executive Chairman
Charles has over 15 years’ experience running the Dickson family office, Tarncourt Group, which he has built into a successful and diverse business.
Charles began his career with Ernst & Young LLP, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant before moving to work in Corporate Finance with McQueen Limited (now Houlihan Lokey Limited). Charles is a non-executive director of Apache Capital Partners Limited.
Jonathan Warburton
Senior Independent Director
Jonathan assumed control of the Warburton bakery business in 1991. He first joined the company at the age of 23 after spending time in organisations outside Warburtons to gain insight into the baking industry, as well as experience in sales and marketing experience through his time spent with Unilever.
He joined the family business as a member of the Sales Team, progressing to National Account Manager and to Sales Director before he set up the Marketing Team. As Marketing Director, he led the development of Warburtons first ever TV advert. In the decade that followed, Jonathan held the role of Commercial Director and joint Managing Director. Since Jonathan became Chairman in 2001, Warburtons has grown from a small, regional business into the second biggest UK grocery brand behind Coca-Cola Plc. Jonathan has also held Non-Executive director positions with AG Barr and Samworth Brothers.
Douglas Benzie
Group CFO
Doug joined Barkby from Pure, the London based healthy fast-food chain and a Whitbread Plc backed company, where he was Finance Director for three years.
Prior to this, Doug held the roles of Group Financial Controller and Chief Accountant at Pret A Manger, and was part of the team that helped grow Pret before its sale to JAB Holding Company. Doug began his career at EY where he worked for 8 years in the strategic growth markets practice and qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Matthew Wood
Non-Executive Director
An experienced plc Non-executive director, Matt graduated with a First Class honours degree in Economics in 1996 and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1999.
He subsequently joined the corporate finance department of Beeson Gregory in 2000 where he advised growing companies on transactions including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, M&A and corporate restructuring. Matt also advised corporate clients on the UK regulatory framework including the Listing Rules, the AIM Rules, the Takeover Code and general corporate governance matters. He left Beeson Gregory, by then Evolution Securities, in 2006 to set up ONE Advisory Group, a London-based corporate advisory group providing its Plc clients with Company Secretarial, Corporate Governance and Compliance services as well as outsourced finance function, IFRS conversions and FPPP preparation.
Senior Management
Simon Jones
Group Property Director
Simon has over 25 years’ UK commercial real estate experience, delivering income and capital returns through investment, asset management and development. He is experienced in origination, underwriting and asset management. Formerly, he was director of a London-based Property Company, Arrowcroft, and latterly Head of UK Strategic Asset Management at CBRE.