Malcolm is an entrepreneur who creates achievable strategies and helps to find the resources to make them happen. He has extensive experience of software, construction and professional services.

He is chairman of DFM Ltd, which provides a flexible director service. Currently it provides Finance Directors under the FD Solutions Brand, and HR Directors (HR Director Solutions) on a part-time or interim basis in Europe and throughout the UK.

He focuses his skills on early stage businesses and not-for -profit organisations and on helping them create achievable strategies. In particular:

• He uses his skills as a chairman to synthesise the group’s ideas into a coherent whole;
• He uses his analytical skills to dig down into the detail and spot problems before they become significant;
• He mentors the leadership team so as to give them the resources that enable them to play their full part;
• He can assist in negotiating and closing deals (sales, purchase or funding contracts) that are “win-win”;
• He uses his connections to find resources that can solve problems and create opportunities.

In addition to setting up FD Solutions he was non-executive chairman of his family’s building contractor business, Gordon Durham & Co, operating in the North East. He guided it out of debt, litigation and low profitability and developed a strategy to take advantage of the new trading arrangements in the industry (called partnering). The business generated positive cashflow and profits of £500k but its long-term future as a family business was unsustainable so in 2008 he arranged its sale to Vinci SA.