Corporate finance advisory · London & international
We are an independent firm providing strategic corporate advice across the financial and professional services sectors. Our partners have deep experience advising and leading within a wide range of financial services firms, including at chair and board level, navigating complexity and creating effective change. Every engagement is led and executed by our Partners, working in teams as needed. Collectively, we bring over 150 years of experience to our clients.
Talk to us →"Working with us should feel supportive, enjoyable and fulfilling — and you will always deal directly with a partner."
Most advisory firms are large, layered and process-driven. We are not. Colthorpe Associates is built around a small group of highly experienced partners who have been where you are — as leaders, as principals and as advisers. Individually we have real experience of financial services company leadership and management. We know what it is like being a client navigating a complex business, and we bring that understanding to every engagement.
We appreciate the real challenges of strategic change for a business and its senior leadership. We tailor our advice accordingly — with trust, rigour and the courage to say what needs to be said. Our clients tell us that working with us feels different. That is not an accident.
The best decisions in complex situations come from clear thinking and rigorous analysis. We work closely with boards and leadership teams to assess strategic options, stress-test assumptions and help you choose the right path — and move along it with confidence. We enjoy working with businesses of all sizes, and bring the same level of commitment and care to every engagement.
We maintain a senior, active network across our core sectors and stay close to deal flow, market developments and emerging opportunities. We bring relevant ideas to clients — and help them act on those ideas at the right moment.
Getting a transaction over the line requires experience, grip and attention to detail at every stage. We manage the full execution of M&A, equity capital raising, ownership structuring and strategic corporate transactions — providing uncompromised advice from first approach to completion.
Two sectors. Real depth. We have worked in and around — and advised within — these sectors for decades, as leaders, principals and advisers. Our advice comes from genuine understanding, not research.
We cover several subsectors of the market, including investment and wealth management, insurance, financial and platform technology and banking. We understand the dynamics of capital, talent, regulation, business creation and strategic change that are driving this sector — and where the opportunities are being created right now, in the UK and internationally.
Law firms, management consultants and professional partnerships. These people-driven businesses have distinct corporate finance needs — and require advisers who understand the primacy of people, culture and reputation in every transaction. We have built a strong track record here over many years.
We are a select group of senior advisers who have spent careers at major investment banks and leading financial services firms. When you work with Colthorpe Associates, you work with us — directly, throughout. We are candid, committed and find that the best work happens when it is also genuinely enjoyable.
Founding Partner
Robert is known for his strategic clarity and his ability to engage personally with senior leaders at critical inflection points. He has more than 35 years’ experience as a corporate finance adviser in the financial services industry, alongside a number of senior leadership roles, including Chair and Senior Independent Director. He began his City career at Morgan Grenfell and Deutsche Bank. Robert is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BSc in Politics and Economics from the University of Bristol.
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Roger Goodchild
Partner
Roger has a gift for cutting through complexity and finding the best strategic path forward — with a human touch that makes the process considerably more enjoyable than it might otherwise be. He spent 28 years at Schroders, including 14 as Global Head of Corporate Development, where he led over 40 transactions across acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures. He has since worked as a senior adviser and consultant to PE houses, established businesses and start-ups, and has served as CFO. Roger is a Chartered Accountant (ex-KPMG), a financial services board director, and has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nottingham.
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Michael Carter
Partner
Mike has deep expertise across the financial services industry and is Senior Policy Advisor at Innovate Finance, the UK's FinTech trade body, and Executive Chairman of The Money Platform, an FCA-authorised P2P consumer credit lender. He has 25 years’ experience as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and RBC Capital Markets, advising the boards of banks, insurers and other financial services companies on strategy, M&A and capital raising. A chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Mathematics from Southampton University, he was a member of HM Treasury’s Asset Management Technology Working Group which reported on the deployment of tokenisation and AI in the asset management industry.
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Martin Windle
Partner
Martin has the rare ability to make strategy feel both rigorous and achievable — and he brings an ease and warmth to complex conversations that clients tend to find quietly reassuring. He has over 25 years of experience in financial services strategy, including as Strategy Director of AIG Life, and has worked across life and pensions, investments and wealth management on both buy- and sell-side transactions. His experience spans corporate strategy, value propositions, investment cases and market entry. Martin has held roles with leading strategy consultancies and has a BA in Accountancy from the University of Exeter.
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Fay Israsena Na Ayudhya
HEAD OF BUSINESS ENABLEMENT
Fay is the person who makes everything work, and makes it feel effortless while doing so. She brings a background in financial services communications at Edelman Smithfield, followed by a career as a business strategy and communications consultant. Multilingual and internationally minded, she has a facility for seeing the angles others miss, and brings warmth and rigour in equal measure. Fay holds a Master's in Business and is fluent in AI, putting it to work optimising how the firm operates. Beyond Colthorpe, she is a naturopath, nutritionist and executive transition coach, guiding senior professionals through periods of significant change — which tells you everything about her standards and her range.
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We work with people who are experienced, intellectually curious and who bring a fresh perspective. If you are someone who believes that excellent advice and genuine enjoyment are not mutually exclusive — we would love to hear from you.
Get in touch →Our partners are active voices in the debates shaping financial and professional services. We write and comment on the themes that matter to our clients — and occasionally in the press.
Robert Colthorpe is quoted in the Financial Times on the sale of Schroders to Nuveen — and what it means for London's position in global asset management.
“London, once very much the centre for investment management, now risks becoming a hub of the US market, rather than a leader in our own right.”Read in the FT →
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