Adrian Lawrence

About Adrian Lawrence FCA

Adrian Lawrence is the founder and director of NED Capital, the specialist practice within FD Capital Group that recruits non-executive directors, chairs, committee chairs, senior independent directors and trustees for UK boards. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds an ICAEW practising certificate. He holds a BSc from Queen Mary College, University of London.

Before building the group, Adrian worked on the executive side of the boardroom. He is a former listed-company finance director, and he served as finance director of Tier Coatings, a private equity-backed management buy-out supplying high-security coin-making equipment to national mints. That experience, of reporting to a board, working with investors and living with the consequences of board decisions, shapes how NED Capital approaches every appointment.

Adrian founded FD Capital in 2018 to place finance directors and CFOs. The group has since grown into five specialist firms, each focused on a different tier of senior appointment, sharing one network of directors and senior executives. NED Capital is the group’s board-level practice. Searches are run by our senior search team under founder Adrian Lawrence FCA, and you can meet the people who run them on our team page.

From Finance Director to Board Recruitment

Most non-executive director recruitment is treated as an extension of executive search. Adrian’s view, formed from the finance director’s seat, is that board appointments are different. A finance director sees at close quarters what a strong board adds and what a weak one costs: the questions that are never asked, the risks nobody owns, the strategy that goes unchallenged because the board lacks the experience to test it.

That is why NED Capital works only on board-level roles. The assessment of a non-executive director is not the same as the assessment of an executive. It needs to cover governance competence, judgement in the boardroom, independence of thought, the time and commitment the role will really demand, and how the candidate will work with the chair, the chief executive and the rest of the board. Our how we work page sets out the process those principles produce, and our guide to NED skills, competencies and behaviours explains what we assess.

As a chartered accountant, Adrian brings a particular focus on the financial side of governance: audit committees, internal controls, financial reporting and capital allocation. That is reflected in the depth of our audit committee chair recruitment and finance and governance NED work, and in the attention we give to regulated boards under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.

What Adrian Does at NED Capital

Adrian does not run every search himself, and NED Capital does not claim that he does. His role is to set the framework within which every search is run and to make sure it is applied consistently. In practice that means:

• Setting the standards. The research methodology, assessment criteria and referencing standards our senior search team uses on every board mandate.
• Overseeing the search team. Reviewing how mandates are scoped, how longlists are built and how candidates are assessed against the brief.
• Regulated and finance-heavy roles. Bringing his accounting and regulatory knowledge to searches for FCA-regulated boards, committee chairs and financially qualified NEDs, including the SMF9 chair and SMF10 and SMF11 committee chair roles.
• The group network. Connecting the five firms so that a NED search can draw on CFOs, chief executives and serving chairs known to FD Capital, Exec Capital, Accountancy Capital and SMF Capital, as well as NED Capital’s own network.
• Content and guidance. Overseeing the guidance we publish for boards and NEDs, from our NED Knowledge Centre to our articles on governance and directors’ duties.

FD Capital Group: Five Specialist Firms

Adrian built the group around a simple idea: senior appointments are best handled by specialists who understand the level of the role, and those specialists are stronger when they share a network. The five firms are:

• NED Capital: non-executive directors, chairs, committee chairs and trustees for UK boards.
• FD Capital: fractional, interim and permanent finance directors and CFOs.
• Exec Capital: C-suite and board-level executive search.
• Accountancy Capital: qualified finance professionals below director level.
• SMF Capital: senior manager function recruitment for FCA-regulated firms.

For a board looking for a non-executive director, the practical benefit is reach. Many of the strongest NED candidates are serving executives and finance leaders who are not on any market and never answer advertisements. A shared network across five specialist firms reaches them directly. Our non-executive director search page explains how that research works.

Published Research and Public Contributions

Adrian has published research on senior finance leadership and board oversight in the UK:

• The Evolution of Fractional CFO Leadership in Modern UK Businesses (ResearchGate, March 2026)
• The Strategic Role of Fractional and Interim Executives in Supporting Organisational Growth and Transformation (ResearchGate, co-authored with academic collaborators)
• Independent Oversight and Strategic Value: An Empirical and Conceptual Analysis of Non-Executive Directors (January 2026)

His publications are also listed on Google Scholar, and presentations on NED Capital’s approach are available on SlideShare.

Adrian has also contributed evidence to the Low Pay Commission, the independent body that advises the government on the National Minimum Wage, and is acknowledged as an evidence contributor in the Low Pay Commission’s 2019 Report to government.

Adrian’s View of Governance

Adrian approaches governance as a working framework rather than a compliance exercise. The questions he returns to are practical ones. Does the board have the experience to challenge the strategy it is being asked to approve? Is anyone on it able to read the accounts critically? Are its independent directors genuinely independent, with the time to do the job? Does it plan its own succession, or does it fill seats only when someone leaves?

These are the situations where we see boards most often need help:

• Private and family businesses making their first independent appointment as they grow, prepare for investment or plan a sale. See do private and family businesses need a NED?
• Private equity-backed companies balancing growth targets with risk discipline and investor reporting, where a chair or NED must work with both management and the investor. Our private equity board governance hub covers this.
• Regulated firms where board appointments need FCA approval and directors carry personal accountability under the SMCR. See our guide to appointing a NED for an FCA-regulated firm.
• Boards refreshing themselves as tenure limits approach, using a skills matrix and staggered appointments rather than replacing directors one at a time. See board recruitment and succession planning.
• Charities and mission-led organisations that need trustees with commercial and financial skills alongside commitment to the cause. See trustee recruitment.

For Aspiring Non-Executive Directors

Many of the people who contact NED Capital are senior executives and finance leaders considering their first board role. Adrian’s advice is consistent: be specific about what you would add to a board, understand the duties you would take on, and be realistic about time. Our guides on how to become a non-executive director, NED responsibilities and legal duties and building a NED CV set this out in detail, and you can register as a candidate to be considered for future roles.

Contact

NED Capital works from offices at 167–169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF and Watling Court, Orbital Plaza, Cannock WS11 0EL, covering the whole of the UK. To discuss a board appointment, call 0203 137 2496, email recruitment@nedcapital.co.uk or use our contact page. More about the firm is on our about us page.