Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Locations in the East of England are under consideration.

CEO Chris Green said a new wave of recruitment would be inevitable to allow SQW to roll out its plans.

SQW has already strengthened its board ready for the push for more healthcare and environment consultancy projects with the high profile appointments of Sir Michael Lyons and Sir William Wells as non-executive directors. Both are taking equity stakes.

Sir Michael is currently completing a high profile review on the future of local government and finance structures and was responsible for the 2004 Lyons Review of Public Sector relocation for the Treasury. He is chairman of the English Cities Fund and a non-executive director of Mouchel Parkman plc, an LSE listed support services company that has recently made three acquisitions valued at c£50 million.

Sir William is chairman of the NHS Appointments Commission and the Health Service Commercial Advisory Board, which advises ministers on the effects of policy in the private sector.

He is also chairman of ADL, an AIM-listed care home provider and a director of Urban Village, which is developing a mixed ‘village’ in Shoreditch to provide homes, support and training for over 300 homeless people.

SQW Group owns two brand operations, SQW Consulting and Oxford Innovation, the latter operating a network of 13 innovation centres including two in Northants at Wellingborough and Silverstone.

Green said more innovation centres would be opened and SQW was scaling up its consultancy activities: “We already work throughout the UK from offices in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester and Oxford and plan to increase our work for central government departments and at regional and local scales.

“We intend to open new offices, with the East Midlands and Wales identified as initial areas of interest.”

The group intends to build on its experience in healthcare consulting, which currently focuses on the interface between health and economic and social policies, to develop a substantial new business in mainstream healthcare consultancy. It will also extend its activity in energy, environment and sustainable development with a range of new services to both public sector organisations and private firms.

Plans include an incubator for early stage energy and environment technology companies, advice on measuring and reducing carbon impacts at scales ranging from regions to individual businesses, and delivery of programmes to support firms to improve their energy efficiency and minimise waste.