Joanne (Jo) Ford

Chartered senior leader & transformation executive with a proven track record of driving commercial scale, sustainable financial performance, and operational agility. Act as a trusted advisor to CEOs and Board of Trustees, combining high-quality financial insights, scenario planning and risk management with hands on technical leadership. Adept at modernising finance systems, embedding strong corporate governance, and maximising income streams.

Known for combining an empathetic, high-trust leadership style with an entrepreneurial mindset to deliver sustainable long-term operational growth. Creating high-performance, cross functional teams.

Director and Founder - Novus Creo Consulting Ltd - UK wide – HO in Warwickshire

(2018-11)

Strategic operations and financial consultancy delivering fractional FD, CFOO and advisory support

• Strategic Advisory: Act as a trusted financial and operational advisor to client CEOs and Boards, delivering bespoke financial modelling, scenario planning, and data analysis to secure long-term financial sustainability.
• Governance and Compliance: Establish robust risk registers, organizational designs, and legal compliance frameworks across finance, HR, and Health & Safety.
• Performance Tracking: Build and implement bespoke organisational KPI dashboards and executive board reporting metrics to guide strategic and operational decision-making.
• Income Optimisation: Conduct comprehensive reviews of income generation opportunities, developing tailored implementation and training plans to diversify funding pipelines.

Director of Finance and Operations - Southampton Forward

(2025-06 - 2026-06)

Culture and creativity focused partnership organisation. Role ended due to redundancy.

• Strategic Financial Management: Led financial management and 3-year end-of-cycle major funding reporting, ensuring complete accuracy and integrity of data.
• Board & Trustee Reporting: Produced high-quality financial information and clear reporting to the Board of Trustees, translating complex data into actionable insights.
• Audit Excellence: Managed external audit processes, achieving clean audit signoffs while strengthening internal controls.
• Governance Updates: Spearheaded ongoing briefings for trustees and staff regarding updates to financial governance, best practices, and legal requirements.

Interim Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Company Secretary) - Police Care UK

(2023-11 - 2024-11)

National charity supporting police personnel and families (circa. £3m turnover) 12-month fixed term contract

• Executive Leadership: Stepped up as Acting CEO to provide clear, purposeful leadership, steadying the organisation and aligning operations with long-term strategic goals during a critical transition period.
• Process Automation: Redesigned cross-departmental ways of working and team communication, yielding a 50% increase in operational efficiencies through automated tasks and shared data analysis.
• Team Performance: Maintained direct report accountability for Clinical, Research, Fundraising, Finance, HR, IT, and Marketing functions, implementing new PDR processes to boost staff engagement and professional growth.
• Resource Optimisation: Spearheaded the redesign of the beneficiary journey and custom CRM, dramatically reducing administrative time and maximising technology use within tight budgetary constraints.

Acting Chief Executive Officer - Police Care UK

(2023-12 - 2024-03)

Director of Finance and Corporate Resources (Company Secretary) - Garden Organic

(2022-07 - 2023-11)

National Environmental membership organisation (circa. £2.5m turnover).

• Commercial Shift: Spearheaded an internal cultural shift from a traditional fundraising mindset to commercial income generation, successfully developing non-financial relationships and commercial partnerships.
• Tech-Driven Efficiency: Implemented a comprehensive finance software upgrade, drastically improving expense management, cost control of overheads, and project accounting capabilities.
• Board Empowerment: Redesigned internal reporting and summary financial presentations to enable highly interactive, empowering strategic Board of Trustee discussions.
• Financial Capability: Trained and upskilled department heads and budget holders on robust budget management, variance analysis, and cost control.

Head of Finance and Operations (Company Secretary) - UK Green Building Council

(2021-07 - 2022-07)

Environmental membership organisation (circa. £3m turnover). Role ended due to redundancy

• Financial Integrity: Led strategic financial modelling and organisational restructuring analysis to support executive decision-making.
• Software Automation: Optimised finance software utilisation, automating manual workflows to free up staff time for deep-dive strategic financial analysis, project accounting, and budget interrogation.
• Project Accounting: Revolutionised staff allocation frameworks against restricted and unrestricted projects, significantly improving operational forward planning.
• Operational Infrastructure: Restructured the internal IT functionality, improving remote working capabilities and driving a 75% improvement in cross-departmental collaboration.

Test centre Team leader - Covid-19 Lateral Flow Test centre (LFT)

(2020-12 - 2021-10)

Temporary community leadership role as a Test Centre Team Leader for the Warwickshire COVID-19 Lateral Flow initiative

Chief Finance Officer - Cirkularis8 Limited - London

(2019-02 - 2020-09)

Commercial office design and fit-out SME (planned pre-pandemic turnover circa. £8.5m)company entered administration

• Crisis Management: Guided the executive team and staff through an unprecedented trading period during the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully maintaining safe operations with zero income from March to September 2020.
• Strategic Modelling: Designed a Midlands-based regional growth and cost-efficiency strategy to diversify income and lower core operational overheads.
• Project Governance: Successfully oversaw the financial delivery of an £8.5m high-end central London project to full client satisfaction under intense economic pressures.

Head of Resources (Company Secretary) - SPACE-2 Group - UK wide

(2013-05 - 2019-01)

Group of companies operating in property hire for film, TV and event locations and production bases.

• Financial Control: Managed the group's central financial controls, statutory reporting, corporate governance, and multi-site operational infrastructure.

Director and Founder - 2 Counties Administration - Hampshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire

(2000-05 - 2015-05)

• Strategic Growth & Transformation: Partnered directly with client CEOs to design and execute business transformation, growth, and crisis-management strategies, ensuring long-term operational resilience.
• Financial & Scenario Modelling: Delivered rigorous income generation analysis, scenario modelling, and opportunity planning to mitigate financial risks and uncover new funding pipelines.
• Process & Systems Optimization: Conducted deep-dive Business as Usual (BAU) systems and process reviews, implementing structural efficiencies to facilitate the achievement of long-term strategic visions.
• Organizational Design: Spearheaded sustainable organisational design initiatives, creating high-performance, cross-functional teams and embedding robust succession planning and corporate exit strategies.
• Other businesses: Set up and ran a 650-acre mixed beef and arable Hampshire tenant farm and contract beef rearing holding; Set up and ran small retail farm outlet selling own produce and that from five other local tenant farms

Restaurant & Operations Manager - Old Sarum Flying Club - Salisbury

(1990-01 - 2000-05)

Kitchen shop manager - FTB Lawsons - Exeter

(1990-01 - 2000-05)

Operations Manager - Buckthorne - Exeter and Devon Airport

(1990-01 - 2000-05)

Appliance Sales Manager - Iceland Appliance Showroom (Iceland Frozen Foods) - Plymouth

(1990-01 - 2000-05)

Operations Manager - Bidford Gliding Club - Warwickshire

(1990-01 - 2000-05)

BSc (Honours) - Environmental Biology and Business - Plymouth University (1997-01 - 1997-12)

Associate then full member - Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (2003-01 - 2006-12)

Post Grad Certificate - Environmental Bioscience in a Changing Climate - The University of Warwick (2010-01 - 2010-12)

Certificate - Business Accounting - CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) (2017-01 - 2017-12)

MA - Leadership and Management - Coventry University (2018-01 - 2018-12)

CPD course - CFO of the future series - CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) (2020-01 - 2020-12)

Women's Leadership Development Programme - Oxford University – Saïd Business School (2020-01 - 2020-12)

CPD course - Charities SORP (FRS 102) Accounting & Reporting for Charities - BPP (2022-01 - 2022-12)

Finance Leadership Program - CIMA (2026-01 - 2026-12)

Associate Diploma - Organisational Learning and Development - CIPD (2026-01 - 2026-12)