Ward Hadaway backs North East founders as entrepreneurship week gets under way

The firm is hosting the Newcastle Scale Up Summit at its Quayside offices on 11 November, bringing founders and business leaders together to explore what it takes to scale a business from the North East.

It is also hosting Beyond the Founder: Building Businesses That Can Scale Without You, an event at its Newcastle offices that looks at what has to change when a successful founder-led business becomes a scalable company, across brand, people, ownership, structure and investment readiness.

Colleagues from across the firm will be at events throughout the week, and Head of Commercial Damien Charlton is a judge for the North East Entrepreneurial Awards.

Damien Charlton, Head of Commercial at Ward Hadaway, said: “Being part of North East Entrepreneurship Week means our colleagues are speaking to founders about what they are building and what they need from their advisers. Our role is to be the adviser founders can pick up the phone to as they grow, whatever stage they have reached.”

Ward Hadaway has a long record of backing North East entrepreneurs. It is a corporate partner of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, which brings the week together, supports the Forum’s Entrepreneurial Awards and has run its own Fastest 50 Awards, which recognise the region’s fastest-growing independent businesses, for nearly 30 years. Acting for founder-led businesses has been at the core of the firm since its inception in 1988.

The firm’s lawyers work alongside founders as their businesses grow, from getting the right foundations in place early, such as shareholders’ agreements and clear terms with customers and suppliers, to planning for what comes next. They act as a long-term adviser who can bring in a specialist when one is needed.

James Nightingale, Partner in the Corporate team at Ward Hadaway, said: “Many founders who have proved their proposition are asking how to make the business bigger than themselves, and the answer touches brand, people, ownership, structure and investment readiness.

“The Beyond the Founder event brings together people who have been through that stage to share what they would put in place early.”

The Newcastle Scale Up Summit will explore why to build and keep a headquarters in the region, whether businesses can hire the people they need without leaving and whether the funding to grow is available locally. It is backed by the ScaleUp Institute’s Scale Up Britain campaign, the British Business Bank and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.

Ward Hadaway advises ambitious businesses and the people who lead them from offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Teesside.

Damien added: “The North East has a real community of founders who are willing to share what they have learned. We want people, including those from outside the region, to see what building a business here can offer.”

For more information please contact Catherine Walker at catherine.walker@wardhadaway.com