Managing Partner
Ian Barker
Phone
07859 875875Specialisms:
- Strategy
- Commercial
- Operations
As our founder and Managing Partner, Ian shapes the BFY vision and inspires our team to bring it to life. Valued highly for his deep industry knowledge and straight talking, sensible approach, Ian is central to our client engagements, curating solutions for the most complex challenges in Energy, Utilities, and Financial Services.
Leading our team of awesome humans, Ian ensures that BFY’s culture, values, and capabilities are all aligned to our shared goal – ‘Delivering Exceptional Results for Clients’.
Over the past 12 months, Ian has led BFY’s accelerated growth and expansion, seeing the team double in size, while also being recognised as one the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services (by Great Place To Work UK).
With 20 years’ experience in management consulting, Ian is no stranger to innovation, having helped our Energy and Water clients to drive transformational change in Strategy, Commercial, and Operations.
This includes:
- Advising the boards of over 30 suppliers during the Energy crisis
- Redefining the strategy of one of the UK’s largest energy retailers
- Building the UK debt sale capability for numerous energy retailers
- Creating a challenger M&A offering
Prior to founding BFY, Ian spent 5 years working in IT helping clients implement “bleeding edge” technology on Web Services, Software As A Service, and helping clients move from Desktop to web-based software solutions.
Ian is married with two young children. He is a willing weekend ‘Daddy Taxi’ but remains unable to locate a kids’ club without Sat Nav.
Start a conversation with:
Ian Barker
NEWS
Ian's Latest Insights
BFY Group supports Flogas in eEnergy acquisition
BFY Group is delighted to have supported Flogas in acquiring the Energy Management Division of eEnergy plc. The Energy Management Division of eEnergy is a digital energy services company, empowering organisations to achieve Net Zero by tackling energy waste and transitioning to clean energy, without the need for upfront investment.
Pre-payment debt has increased 100% to £1bn since Q4-21
Over the past two years we’ve seen pre-payment meter (PPM) debts continuing to rise, and as of Q3-2023 they now stand at £1bn The amount of customers using their PPM to repay a debt has risen by 40% (up 220k to 750k), and the average debt balances have also risen by 40% (up £400 to £1,300) - resulting in a 100% (up £500m to £1bn) increase in total pre-payment meter debt.
An update on Energy Complaints Performance
Complaints challenges are set to continue in Q1. It’s a trend we’ve seen in recent years, that customers are more likely to complain during a period of high usage. However, based on current market conditions, this year’s uplift could be more significant than usual.
Meet The Team
Our Strategy & Commercial Team
Tom Bromwich
Director
Tom leads client engagements with a particular focus on commercial strategy, pricing, customer acquisition and retention.
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Matt Turner
Manager
Matt helps lead clients through key strategic projects exploring growth opportunities, business models, competitive advantage, and mergers & acquisitions.
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Angela Tooley
Head of Private Equity, Real Estate & ESG
Angela specialises in the creation and implementation of growth strategies, as well as supporting clients through special situations, with M&A advisory, restructuring, and crisis management.
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Zander Cleves
Manager
Zander specialises in change management and business transformation, delivering commercial insight to clients through financial modelling.
View ProfileCASE STUDIES
Our Results
Supporting a large supplier's transformation through challenger strategy and scenario analysis
Our client, a large Energy retailer, was looking for quantitative and qualitative analysis on how challenger energy suppliers operate. We delivered our insights and recommendations to the board using our modelling on the energy market, backed by the evidence gained through our benchmarking study.
Accelerated M&A process on behalf of a Senior Secured Creditor
We deployed our accelerated M&A team to conduct due diligence analysis of the domestic retailer, modelling the business, and customer book, at pace to prepare for all disposal options.
Wholesale trading analysis on challenger brands to increase gross margin
Our client, a large Energy retailer, needed deeper insight into how challenger brands bought wholesale energy, and to what degree this could be providing a cost advantage. We delivered a detailed report on the leading challenger brands’ wholesale market activity, helping our client change its own approach and increase its gross margin.