Duckworth Finn chief to join start-up

Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters managing director Charlie Dawson is leaving to set up a company specialising in management and brand consultancy.

Duckworth Finn is to take a minority stake in The Foundation, which will launch on October 4 and operate from the same building.

Michael Finn, chief executive of Duckworth Finn, will assume Dawson’s management responsibilities.

Dawson believes there is a gap in the market for a company offering brand-building solutions tailored to clients’ business operations: “The management consultants don’t know how consumers think and ad agencies generally don’t know enough about the business process.”

He has teamed up with an old college friend, Ian Hughes, former chief executive of CHKS, a management consultancy specialising in the health service. Hughes has also worked as a divisional director of the Generics Group – a Cambridge-based PA Consulting spin-off.

They will begin work on a project for the Department for Education & Employment aimed at encouraging people to invest their own money in training while in employment.