Stewart Noakes – Exeter Management Consulting
Stewart Noakes is a business adviser and independent EOT trustee with many years’ experience working with businesses transitioning to employee ownership. Based in Exeter, he works with founders and their advisers to navigate the long-term transition to an EOT.
EOT experience
Stewart has supported businesses across a range of sectors through their EOT journey, including engineering, recruitment and professional services. He currently serves as an independent trustee across a number of EOT boards, bringing a governance perspective grounded in practical experience of how employee owned businesses actually operate day to day.
EOT expertise
Stewart understands that a large part of making an EOT happens after the deal. He has supported businesses in their shift towards open communication, developing shared accountability and creating a new kind of dialogue between leadership and employees. It's an area where he believes advisers can add real, lasting value to the businesses they support.
Contact Stewart Noakes
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Website
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewartnoakes/
How Stewart works with Go EO
Stewart has worked alongside Go EO on several EOT transactions. In his words, Go EO "cut through the unnecessary layers," creating a process where the timeline is visible, progress is clear, and founders know exactly where they stand.
What is an Employee Ownership Trust?
An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) allows a business owner to sell their company to a trust held on behalf of employees, rather than to an external buyer. The founder is repaid from future profits, staff benefit from any profit that is left in the form of a profit share. The business stays independent and rooted in the community it has always served.
Why sell your business to an EOT?
For business owners with deep roots in their local area, an EOT offers something a trade sale simply cannot: continuity. The business stays local. Jobs stay local. Relationships with customers, suppliers and the wider community remain intact. For many founders, particularly those who have built something that genuinely matters to the people around them, this is the most important consideration of all.