Avance

Steve Farrar

Business Development Director

Steve is a client relationship and business consultancy professional with over 20 years experience of delivering business process solutions to major UK and European organisations.

He has held senior positions in retail, manufacturing, financial services and consultancy organisations, specialising in shared service centre efficiencies and the provision of business process outsourcing solutions.

With a PhD in Business and Change Management, our clients benefit from his experience in providing cost effective outsourcing solutions through a client partnership approach.

Colin Rutherford

Chairman

Colin has a strong corporate finance background and a reputation for steering both public and private companies. He is playing a vital role in setting the strategic direction of Avance during this period of rapid growth.

He has over 20 years experience and was formerly founder and Chief Executive of Rutherford Manson Dowds which merged with Deloitte & Touche in 1999. He set up Intelli Partners PLC where he acted as Chief Executive and subsequently Chairman until it was sold in 2005 to Iimia Group PLC.

Colin currently retains a diverse portfolio of interests spanning Oil & Gas, Alternative Energy, Financial Services, Retail, Property and Technology. In particular his knowledge of Leisure and Financial Services brings a strong dimension to the Avance team.

Graham Higgins

Director, Leisure

After nearly a decade in corporate banking at Hill Samuel/Lloyds TSB, Graham moved into the leisure sector to manage Bass Brewers’ £700 million trade loan portfolio.

His understanding of licensed trade business processes has developed over nearly 15 years in the sector, and he was centrally involved in the first significant business process outsourcing project in the UK licensed sector in 1999.

Graham currently drives performance and innovation for a variety of global blue chip partners in the leisure and hospitality industry. Graham is 38, and is a qualified Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Campbell W Mitchelson

IT Director

Campbell has operated in blue chip environments throughout his 15-year career, and has developed a reputation for implementing leading edge technology-based systems.Early in his career at energy provider Scottish Power, Campbell was instrumental in the development of the organisation’s first Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks, linking disparate operations and improving business processes.

He spent nine years as the director of IT for a leading European credit management and outsourcing organisation. There he was responsible for technology development and implemented customer credit and dispute management technologies currently used by global businesses in more than 30 countries around the world.

Campbell is 37.

John Thomson

Director

John has spent nearly two decades developing innovative shared service and outsourced multilingual solutions for a string of global blue chip clients.

A customer relationship specialist, he was instrumental in the development of Avance’s first web-based client tool in the late 1990s, before launching its first international customer contact solution in 1999. His experience in creating individually tailored solutions has helped major organisations overcome technological and structural issues, to deliver world-class customer experience and performance.

John is 40.