Our Partners
Talented commercial leadership for businesses facing change, challenge or opportunity.
Honeycomb brings together two resourceful commercial executives with complementary financial, operational and transformation leadership skills.
Between us, we bring extensive senior executive and board-level experience of leading businesses through some of the situations that matter most — transformation, restructuring, performance improvement, acquisition, growth and significant organisational change.
Two complementary perspectives
Richard brings deep financial and commercial experience, with a particular focus on financial performance, business transformation, restructuring, acquisitions, controls and value creation.
Paula brings deep operational and commercial experience, with a particular focus on business performance, organisational transformation, leadership, customers, people and delivery.
But our experience extends beyond those areas.
We are both commercially focused executives who understand the whole business and the importance of connecting financial performance, operational performance, people, customers and strategy.
That is what makes the Honeycomb proposition different.
Richard Leighton
Richard is a commercially focused finance leader with extensive experience identifying and delivering on opportunities for private equity funds and investor-backed SMEs. He supports boards with M&A, turnaround and performance improvement.
Richard helps organisations strengthen financial control, improve performance and navigate periods of growth, change and restructuring. He has worked across private equity-backed, entrepreneurial and mid-market businesses where clear financial insight, disciplined execution and strong leadership are critical to decision-making and value creation.
Richard is also a trustee for an Education Trust.
Paula Chambers
Paula is a transformation-focused business leader with over 20 years’ experience guiding organisations through complex change, operational restructuring and performance improvement.
She has held both COO and CEO roles and has worked extensively in corporate and private equity-backed environments, as well as SMEs, where pace, accountability and tangible results are central to success.
Paula specialises in situations that require strategic clarity and decisive execution — stabilising underperforming operations, leading organisational change and helping leadership teams translate strategy into sustainable results.
Paula is also a trustee and treasurer of a charity supporting adults and children through nature-based activities.
Experience that delivers
When the pressure is on, we believe experience is what matters most.
Between us, we bring decades of senior leadership experience gained from complex, ambitious, changing organisations. We have worked with businesses and leadership teams tackling underperformance, transformation, restructuring, acquisition and significant organisational change programmes.
Our experience comes from taking responsibility for outcomes - not advising from the sidelines.
We have led businesses and teams through difficult decisions, operational change and periods of extreme uncertainty. We understand the reality of balancing commercial performance, people, customers, cash and strategic objectives because we have been accountable for all of this ourselves.
Our background
Turnaround & performance improvement
Leading businesses through periods of underperformance, identifying the issues that are holding them back and developing practical plans to restore performance.
Our experience includes operational turnaround, cost reduction, restructuring, performance improvement and rebuilding confidence around a credible plan for the future.
Restructuring & organisational change
Leading significant business and organisational change, including restructuring operations, reshaping leadership teams and reducing complexity and cost.
We understand that successful restructuring is about more than changing an organisation chart. It requires challenging the status quo, clear decisions, strong leadership, careful communication and disciplined execution.
Operational leadership
Improving the way businesses operate — from strategy and operating model through to day-to-day performance.
We have experience of developing stronger controls, improving accountability, building effective leadership teams and creating more efficient, customer-focused operations.
Transformation
Helping organisations move from where they are today to where they need to be.
That can mean changing the operating model, improving performance, introducing new ways of working or creating the capability needed for the next stage of growth.
We focus on turning ambition into practical action.
Acquisition & integration
Supporting businesses through significant change, including acquisition, integration and the mobilisation of new or underperforming operations.
We understand the challenge of bringing together people, operations and leadership while maintaining momentum and commercial focus.
Leadership and team development
Building stronger, more accountable leadership teams.
Our experience includes reshaping leadership structures, developing capability and helping senior teams become clearer about their roles, responsibilities and priorities.
We believe sustainable change depends on the people who remain after the project or interim assignment has finished.
Exit readiness
Prepare your business for the next chapter.
We help owners prepare their businesses for a successful exit by strengthening performance, leadership, operations, governance and strategic positioning.
We identify and address the issues that could reduce value, create risk or complicate due diligence, while building a more resilient and less owner-dependent business.
Board and governance
Working with (and on) boards and senior leadership teams to provide clarity, challenge and practical support.
We bring an experienced operator's perspective — helping boards focus on the issues that matter, ask the right questions and make confident decisions.
Our approach combines appropriate governance with commercial pragmatism.
Our Story and Mission
Honeycomb Consultancy was founded to offer seasoned board-level expertise at pace, helping organisations in transition overcome operational and financial challenges. We are committed to delivering tangible improvements that protect stakeholder value and support sustainable growth.
