Strategic insights and guidance

Non-exec director support

Name: Alchemize
Price range: $

Explore support tailored to your organisation. Non-exec director roles can offer invaluable insight, strategy and guidance without disrupting the day-to-day.

Fresh perspective

In need of a Non-Exec Director?

Sometimes the most valuable thing a business can have is an experienced voice at the table. Alchemize now offers non-executive support for founders, boards and leadership teams who want independent challenge without the cost of a full-time hire. With over 40 years of starting, scaling, buying and selling businesses behind him, Stephen brings the judgement to test your thinking, sharpen your strategy and hold you to account for delivery, grounded in data and decisions rather than theory. Having lived the highs and lows of business himself, he offers honest counsel with real understanding, whether you're driving growth, preparing for investment or exit, or working through a difficult decision.

Why choose us?

Why work with Alchemize?

We're for people who are tired of doing it all alone, have exhausted looking for answers on a screen, and need a real solution to the anxieties of starting, leading or scaling a business. We're for those ready to discover what's possible when you collaborate with the right people.

We won't tell you what to do, but we will help you figure out what you should do to meet your goals. This is a hands-on partnership where we focus on action, not theory. Here, you'll learn how to move beyond bottlenecks, manage high-pressure environments and handle multi-stakeholder scenarios.

Book a discovery call

Book a discovery call if you:

Feel stuck professionally and/or personally
Have ideas but lack structure
See potential but cannot access or action it
Struggle to take decisive action to further your role or business

About Alchemize

Our story

Alchemize is the brainchild of founder/owner turned hybrid coach and mentor, Stephen O'Brien. Having built, scaled, sold and exited several multi-million pound businesses over a diverse forty year career, Stephen decided it was time to use what he knows to help businesses and owners that need someone in their corner. Building on his own lived experience, he completed an internationally recognised Accredited Award in Coach Training (AACT) programme to support him in driving positive change for other businesses and leaders, globally. The hybrid Alchemize approach ensures action beyond theory, clarity derived from real insight, and actionable progress that demands accountability. Above all though, Alchemize is human; we all get anxious, overwhelmed and get in our own way, with our support, that ends here!

Meet the founder

Our approach

The process

No two clients or challenges are the same, so we don't offer a set-step process; each programme or course of action is tailored to your needs, goals and ways of working. However, if you're new to coaching and mentorship, this will help you understand what to expect.

Your discovery call

This is the first step and one of the most important. We will have an informal chat to discuss your pain points, aims and assess if we're the right fit for one another.

Diagnose your barriers to success

Whether you're an individual seeking to progress, a startup looking to scale, or a large business leader seeking organisational change for growth, sale or exit planning, we will assess and collaborate on the routes to change and sustainable success.

Develop your tailored programme plan

Here, we'll take what we know and transform it into a series of actions, plans and clear tasks. We will push clarity, decision-making and accountability, so you need to be ready to work. We'll be with you every step of the way, working in one-to-one, remote or on-site sessions to suit your needs.

FAQs

Find our more about what NED support means annd how it can help you and your organisation.

View all FAQs

As a NED, we will bring you decades of experience and objectivity that can be hard to generate from inside your business. In this role, it becomes our job to challenge your thinking and decisions without the blind spots that come from being immersed in day-to-day operations. This means we can help you form sharper strategy and avoid costly mistakes. As your NED, Steve will open doors through his experiences to networks, investors and partners you may not have access to. Having an experienced outsider on the board also strengthens governance and credibility, which matters when raising investment, preparing for a sale, or simply reassuring stakeholders that decisions are being properly scrutinised. Ultimately, as NED, Steve will be the ultimate sounding board: someone who has faced similar challenges before and can help your team avoid learning hard lessons the expensive way.
There are lots of variables when it comes to NED pay. This is because the level of work and involvement can vary significantly based on the size and stage of the business, the time commitment, and the sector. If you're a in the early stages of your organisation, or you run a small, private company, then it's common to agree a modest retainer, this can be paired with equity, but not always. Larger organisations may want to retain these services longer term for greater impact and fees vary. We will work with you to ascertain the best route to supporting your business and meeting your longer-term aims, and much like with our coaching and mentoring services, these are bespoke so we do not have a price list. If you're interested in NED support, we would be happy to discuss your needs.
A Non-Executive Director (NED) is an independent voice sitting on your on a company's board - but NEDs do not get involved in the day-to-day management and running of the company. Lots of people find that this kind of outside experience and objective judgement are helpful to challenge existing strategy, support good decision-making and help hold teams to account. As well as this, as your NED, Stephen will ask the questions a founder or leadership team may be too close to ask themselves, drawing on pattern recognition from his decades of experience in order to help you spot potential risks and opportunities earlier. Appointing a NED is a great way to access senior-level guidance and governance without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive hire.