We are founded by a team that has successfully scaled multiple businesses from start-up through scale-up and hyper-growth.
The Excelerator Partners Leadership Team is comprised of seasoned business scalers, entrepreneurs, talent experts and value creation innovators who encompass true diversity of thought.
Suzy Rowley
Founder & CEO
As both an intrapreneur and entrepreneur, Suzy has launched and accelerated growth in several PE & Founder backed businesses. As part of the founding leadership team of global talent firm AMS, together they grew the business through 4 highly successful management buy-outs to a $1.1billion valuation in 2018. Having since built a varied portfolio career as a Board & Strategic Advisor to scaling businesses, in 2023 Suzy identified a value creation gap in the scale-up eco-system and founded Excelerator Partners.
Cate Poulson
Chief Operating Officer
With a background in executive search and board effectiveness, Cate is the founder and former leader of the £2.5bn private equity growth investor BGF’s Talent Network. She and her team developed the largest and most active Board and leadership team value creation capability in the UK scale-up eco-system, partnering over 500 businesses and curating an expansive network of the UK’s leading fractional executives, consultants, NEDs and Chairs. Cate is a NED at the ScaleUp Institute.
Sam Smith
Strategic Advisor
Entrepreneur Sam is the founder and former CEO of finnCap Group Plc, a leading business and financial advisory firm for high growth scaling businesses that she and her team grew to over £50m annual revenue. Sam sits on some of the UK’s most exciting scaling business Boards, is Patron to The Entrepreneurs Network, a leading advocate for the power of Board diversity, and part of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year judging panel.
Mark Widnall
Chief Financial Officer
Having qualified as an Accountant with EY, Mark has focused his career on supporting start-up and high growth scaling businesses. He has built an inter-connected skillset encompassing financial management, investments and exits, risk and regulatory, FP&A, and systems management that has enabled him to hold a variety of roles from CFO to Operations Director and Managing Director.
Clair Bush
Chief Marketing Officer
With two decades of marketing and brand expertise, Clair has successfully led and shaped award-winning portfolios for UK and European start-up and scaling businesses in the realms of global SaaS, commercial tech, employer branding, talent, and media brands. Having built her own highly successful portfolio career, Clair is a passionate advocate of the UK Founders and Portfolio community.
Suzy Rowley
Founder & CEO
Suzy has over 25 years’ experience accelerating growth in entrepreneurial investor and PE backed businesses globally as both an Intrapreneur and Entrpreneur.
She enjoyed a phenomenal 17-year journey as part of the foundational leadership team of AMS talent solutions that grew the business to a team of over 5000, servicing clients across 80 countries, and through 4 management PE buy-outs to a $1.1billion valuation in 2018. Her expertise incorporates strategy, sales, commercial, M&A, strategic program management, new product design and launch, investor relations, management buy-outs and innovation incubators.
Since leaving AMS in 2021 she has supported a wide range of seed and scale-up businesses to successful outcomes, before establishing Excelerator Partners in 2023.
Innovation has been the bedrock of Suzy’s career, creating new solutions and different ways forward to accelerate growth, impact and value creation. She passionately believes in supporting the scaleup ecosystem with Excelerator Partners new leadership value creation solution.
Cate Poulson
Chief Operating Officer
Cate is an experienced business leader and business builder, with a background in executive talent and private equity in the scale-up ecosystem.
Most recently she spent 12 years at BGF, the UK's most active growth capital investor. She joined BGF shortly post launch and created the BGF Talent Network, developing it into one of the largest and most active value creation capabilities of any investment firm. She and her team partnered with over 500 businesses to shape highly effective Boards, including placing more than 400 Non-Executive Chairs and Directors and hundreds of Experts in the UK, Europe and US.
She was a member of BGF's Executive Committee, developed their in-house research and intelligence team, and took the lead on BGF's strategy to increase investment into women led businesses.
Cate is a guest lecturer at Henley Business School and regular speaker on Board Effectiveness; she is a member of the Women in Angel Investing Taskforce; and an Independent NED at the ScaleUp Institute.
Sam Smith
Strategic Advisor
Entrepreneur Sam Smith is the founder, former CEO, and adviser to the Board of finnCap Group Plc. Sam was the first female chief executive of a City stockbroking firm and has worked on over 200 transactions, IPOs and secondary fund raisings.
Sam actively champions investment for female-led business through the finnCap Ambition Nation: Female Leaders Series to help create better networks and demystify financial jargon. Sam is also passionate about empowering young people and helping them develop essential life skills, and works with organisations such as YourGamePlan, icanyoucantoo and Modern Muse to help create a fairer foundation for young people, irrespective of their background.
Sam supports the scale-up eco-system with a range of diversity focussed businesses and taskforces including 55 Redefined, Everywoman, the Government Taskforce on Women-Led High Growth Enterprises, the ScaleUp Institute, EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and The Entrepreneurs Network.
Mark Widnall
Chief Financial Officer
Mark has excelled in his support of growing businesses, utilising the varied skillset he has developed over a 30 year career.
Following his audit training with EY, and qualification as an ACA, Mark worked in regulated and non-regulated sectors initially as a finance executive and then in senior roles with a more operational and client facing focus. Mark has expertise in preparing a business for sale, integrating businesses post-acquisition, implementing new systems, developing business models and financial plans, managing cash flow, and risk and regulatory responsibilities.
Over the last 20 years, Mark's focus has been within the talent management sector. A period as UK Director of a talent firm, managing its sale to a large, listed Swedish recruitment business was the catalyst for Mark to move beyond the confines of the finance office and to add operational and commercial depth to his financial experience. This breadth and depth of Mark's experience makes him the ideal trusted custodian of Excelerator Partners' financial foundations and infrastructure.
Clair Bush
Chief Marketing Officer
With two decades of marketing and brand expertise, Clair has successfully led and shaped award-winning portfolios in the realms of global SaaS, commercial tech, employer branding, recruitment, job advertising, and media brands.
As Fractional CMO, Clair currently works across a portfolio of clients including Excelerator Partners, Thrive Recruitment Marketing, Join Talent, and The Recruitment Network.
Her work is high-impact, varied and fulfilling as she crafts bespoke marketing and brand strategies, delivers business-critical projects, provides mentorship to marketing professionals, and offers strategic guidance to fuel sustainable growth and deliver exceptional experiences.
