INTRODUCTION

Chris Grove is an experienced partner and senior leader with over 35 years’ experience in professional services.

Chris’s career centred on deal advisory, corporate finance and partnership leadership and governance.  As National Head of Transaction Services at BDO UK and past Chair of the International Corporate Finance Group, he was responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the UK firm’s corporate finance business and the development of BDO’s international corporate finance business.  Alongside his leadership roles, he remained hands-on advising clients, working on more than 400 transactions over his career, ranging from £20m to £1bn.

In his 26 years as a partner, he held senior governance roles, including membership of BDO UK’s Leadership Team and serving on the firm’s Partnership Council.  He chaired the firm’s Unifying Culture Board, driving wellbeing and organisational culture initiatives.  As well as chairing the International Corporate Finance Group, Chris’s international experience included a period on the board of BDO India.

Chris has acted as a mentor and coach to senior executives for a number of years and formally qualified as an Executive Coach (Barefoot Coaching Limited) in 2025.  He is also a qualified Hogan Practitioner and Mental Health First Aider.

Chris works with senior leaders on transition, strategic influence and complex stakeholder engagement.  His approach is pragmatic and commercially grounded, with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and applied behaviour change.

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Whilst Chris is a qualified chartered accountant and an FCA, don’t call him an accountant!  Having studied Psychology at University, Chris has remained fascinated by what drives us as individuals and how leaders can enable teams to flourish and deliver optimum performance.

Chris is an avid cyclist, having transitioned from distance running in the early noughties.  He rode a bamboo bike on BDO’s John O’Groats to Land’s End charity ride in 2012, returning to John O’Groats this year as part of his completion of the North Coast 500.  In the intervening years, he has been ticking off cycling’s “monuments” and bagging a few classics, including Milan-San Remo, Amstel Gold, Strada Bianche, Il Lombardia and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.  He has yet to brave the cobbles of Flanders or Roubaix!

Building on his passion for two wheels (and an inability to improve his game on the golf course), Chris established BDO Velo in 2015 as a cycling community that does business on bikes. The LinkedIn group now has over 660 members.

Perhaps not surprisingly Chris lives in the Surrey Hills, ideal cycling country and a stone’s throw from the “iconic” Box Hill.  When he gets the opportunity, Chris heads down to Cornwall to catch a few waves, and perhaps ride a few of the county’s challenging hills. In the Winter, Chris decamps to the Alps for a different kind of challenge, and where he is often found chasing the rest of his family down the slopes.

Chris has a passion for working with people to help them unleash their full potential and whilst once a cynic as to the value of coaching in the corporate world, his perspective changed when asked the question – “Why do you think top sports people have coaches?”

At BDO Chris employed a coaching leadership style for most of his professional career.  One of the most fulfilling aspects of his role was the series of development programmes for directors transitioning to partner he had the privilege of delivering.  He continues to mentor some of those individuals today.

As one of the architects of BDO UK’s core purpose – Helping You Succeed – Chris is an avid follower of Simon Synek: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it….”