Exclusive:Edinburgh-based consultancy firm CBS adds banking executive with RBS and Tesco Bank pedigree

Coinciding with the record year-end results, CBS has announced the setting up of a new advisory board to help manage the continued expansion of the business, which is headquartered in Edinburgh, with offices in London and Dublin.

The board will be chaired by David Bowerman, a banking executive who was previously managing director of UK and European operations at RBS, vice chairman of Citizens Bank and chief operating officer of Tesco Bank. Bowerman is also an investor and adviser to several other international businesses, and to local emerging businesses and tech start-ups.

CBS said the new board would develop and oversee the firm’s growth strategy for the next three to five years. Other board members have been secured and will be announced in due course, it added.

The consultancy was founded by a team of consultants working for the “big four” accountancy practices. It now employs more than 30 consultants and change specialists, with business roughly split between the retail and financial services sectors. Slightly under half of its activity is in Scotland, with the remainder in London and Dublin.

Bowerman said: “CBS is a very impressive organisation with a deep pool of highly talented and experienced change professionals. It’s ability to deliver rapid change for the sector with a very hands on and pragmatic approach during and since Covid marks it out as a standalone in its field.

“We can see that we are entering another period of high demand, driven in part by recent local M&A [merger and acquisition] activity, and CBS is very well placed to both support and capture that opportunity.”

CBS Consulting’s managing director, Eddie Curran, added: “This has been another year of solid growth for CBS Consulting. We have a strategic and achievable three-to-five-year growth plan which will enable us to maintain our reputation for delivering high-quality change management services within the financial services industry and retail sector in particular.

“The appointment of David, a highly respected sector specialist with deep experience in domestic and international finance, is both a statement of intent from CBS, and a reflection of our growing reputation for delivering results for our clients. Our new advisory board will help us ensure that our continued expansion is strategic, and designed to best service our clients.”