EOT adviser in Folkestone

Chris Simpson – Going Long Consulting

Chris Simpson is a business adviser and board director with 25 years of experience spanning start-ups to major listed organisations. Through Going Long Consulting, he specialises in supporting small and medium-sized businesses through ownership transitions. His key focus is to support businesses after the Employee Ownership Trust sales to develop an approach that makes EOT governance genuinely useful rather than just compliant.

EOT expertise

Chris has built substantial experience in EOT advisory and M&A for SMEs, and currently holds several independent trustee positions across a range of businesses. His approach to EOT governance is deliberately demystifying. He translates complex trust structures and legal documentation into plain English, and helps organisations find the real benefit in their new structure rather than feeling constrained by it.

Qualifications and experience

Chris brings a broad commercial background to his advisory work. Career highlights include serving as Commercial Director of Airmiles, General Manager of Capita Offshore Services, and Managing Director of The Search Works (at the time Europe's largest Google client). Since 2011 he has consulted across manufacturing, construction, professional services and marketing.

How Chris works with Go EO

Chris works alongside Go EO on EOT transactions, combining his board and governance experience with Go EO's transaction expertise. Go EO manages the technical side - valuation, legal documentation, tax clearance and trust registration. Chris supports the business through the transition and, where appropriate, takes on an independent trustee role post-completion.

What is an Employee Ownership Trust?

An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is an exit route that transfers a business owner's shares to a trust held on behalf of employees, rather than selling to a trade buyer or investor. The business repays the founder from future profits. The company remains independent, with its culture and values intact. And the employees benefit from profit share when the company makes a profit.

It's a way of selling without selling out.

Why sell your business to an EOT?

Many founders spend years building a business with a distinct identity, culture and way of doing things. An EOT is one of the few exit routes that actively protects all of that. Unlike a trade sale – where the acquirer may have very different ideas about how the business should run – an EOT keeps control within the organisation. The business stays independent. The team stays together. The culture you worked to create has a genuine chance of carrying forward.