Dawn Tyler

Building relationships

I love my career in supporting management teams through change and growth by working with leaders to understand the key drivers of their businesses and the challenges they need to overcome to succeed.

I have had the privilege of working with businesses across multiple industries and at all different stages using my background in restructuring and Chartered Accountancy qualification as well as a deep curiosity to understand what is at the heart of a business and really look at the fundamentals of the sales, marketing and operations.

At Mercia I work founders on their growth journeys as a Portfolio Director and love the passion and drive that entrepreneurs have to realise their vision.

Background

I come from a small town on the Isle of Wight and I think having boundaries there made me really curious to explore the wider world - to meet different people and understanding how the broader world worked. I decided to go to University in Scotland as I visited Edinburgh and loved it immediately!

After leaving university I joined one of the big 5, Ernst & Young, and I loved being sent all over the country to work through with a management team the immediate issues in finance, sales, operations and their wider industry challenges and to come up with an action plan. This usually meant time pressures, cash shortages, using all our powers of persuasion to get stakeholders, suppliers, customers and the company staff on board to work with us on putting it into practice. It was brilliant hands-on experience as we often then traded the businesses for a period post IP appointment which was a big learning curve!

I joined Mercia in 2017 feeling like I’d really like to work with businesses who were starting out on their journey and growing to scale - as it is one of the most exciting and biggest transformation periods for companies and teams.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with over 35 companies in that time and been directly involved in over 8 successful exits (international trade sales, PE, buy backs) as well as further investments or Series A and B rounds. I was the first portfolio person at Mercia but now really enjoy working as part of a growing team and linking in with the investment team members too. I love the diversity of the businesses we work with, the ingenuity, passion and dedication of the founders and helping navigate the bumps with them on what is never a straight-line road!

I love the diversity of the businesses we work with, the ingenuity, passion and dedication of the founders and helping navigate the bumps with them on what is never a straight-line road.