Contact Us


Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund Limited
Barton Enterprise Centre
99 Barton Street
Gloucester
GL1 4HR

[view map]

Tel: 01452 544938 or email us.

Board of Directors

Philip Lane - Chairman
Howard Francis - Company Secretary and Project Manager
Philip Timson
Simon Sheldon
John Courts
Patrick Underwood
Howard Guy
John McLaughlin
Keith Stokes-Smith

Staff

Roger Payne - Business Adviser
Mike Lewis - Loan Fund Manager

The GDLF website

The GDLF website was designed by Vertex Financial Services as part of their INVOLVe programme. Please email Jonathan Pollinger with any comments.

Meet the team

Philip Lane - GDLF Chairman
Phil is currently the Executive Manager of Gloucester City Council's Housing and Health portfolio which covers Housing, Environmental Health, Revenues and Benefits. He has 35 years’ experience in local government within Gloucestershire and has held senior posts in Environmental Health, Housing, Economic Development and Regeneration. In this latter role he successfully founded several local businesses and devised a wide range of projects to support numerous others. This provided him with extensive practical experience of the problems facing small businesses and directly led to his support and involvement in the Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund. Phil was educated at Bath University where he obtained a BSc in Applied Biology and more recently as a mature student at the University of Gloucestershire where he gained an MBA.

Howard Francis - GDLF Company Secretary & Project Manager
Howard is an Accountant specialising in Economic Regeneration and Business Development. He has experience in company investigation, working for seven years with the DTI. After the Scarman Report he was involved for eight years with Local Authorities in City Challenge Areas setting up Enterprise Centres. Howard has worked in the private sector as Finance and General Manager for an overseas company trying to break into the UK pub trade. He has run his own businesses over the years, and was also for twelve years a part time lecturer for start-up businesses. For the last ten years he has been Manager for Barton & Tredworth Developments Ltd, a company formed out of regeneration, the Enterprise Centre and Gloucestershire Ethnic Minority Business Association, plus Project Manager for Care & Repair (Gloucester). He sits on various boards either as trustee or director, plus being chair or treasurer for various voluntary organisations. He brings a wealth of experience to all the posts he is involved in.

Mike Lewis - Loan Fund Manager
Previously employed by Barclays Bank as a Manager for  twenty-five years in various roles, with experience in medium and small businesses as Local Business Manager in Cheltenham (from 1991) and previously on the Bank’s Inspection Team covering Bristol and the South West. Mike joined GDLF in June 2003 where he has developed the loan fund since inception in his role as Loan Fund Manager. He is married and lives in Cheltenham. His hobbies are playing competitive bridge, hill walking and watching Swindon Town FC. In his youth he had national championship successes in both old time ballroom dancing and in long distance race walking athletic races.

Non-Executive Directors

Philip Timson
After over 30 years in banking, mostly spent in Gloucestershire and Bristol, Philip joined Business Link in February 2000. For over four years he managed the team of start-up advisers before becoming Operations Director in August 2004. In that role he managed the teams of advisers giving advice on business growth, skills development, international trade in addition to the business start-ups. He was also heavily involved in the reorganisation of the Business Link service locally and the establishment of the new joint venture company that now delivers this service across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the West of England. Since April 2007 Philip has been a director of Chargrove Business Services Limited and runs the Gloucestershire Enterprise Business Services (GEBS) division of that company. GEBS is a not for profit, social enterprise working for the development of a more prosperous Gloucestershire. It provides Business Advice & Support, Business Skills Training and specialist programmes specifically designed to help micro businesses prosper and grow. See www.glosebs.co.uk for further details. Philip’s hobbies include golf, sport, theatre, gardening, and walking. He has been a director of GDLF since the company was formed.

Simon Sheldon
Simon graduated at Exeter University in 1987 before training and qualifying in 1991 with Horwath Clarke Whitehill, a Top 20 Gloucestershire practice. He is now a Partner at Harper Sheldon Chartered Accountants in Cheltenham. As well as running the practice with a special responsibility for staff and recruitment, Simon is Treasurer of a local Youth Club, Governor of an Infants School and a panel member and Director of the Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund. Simon lives in Gloucester and is married with two children. In his spare time he enjoys walking, swimming and spending as much time as possible in the West Country.

John Courts
John is a Project Manager within Gloucestershire First, having previously undertaken senior management roles in HSBC Bank at Head Office and branches prior to being Area Manager in Cheltenham. He is now responsible for the Gloucestershire Ambassador Programme, among other projects. John sits on the boards of Gloucestershire Education Business Partnership and the Cotswold Canals Partnership as well as GDLF. He is Chairman of Gloucestershire ProHelp and Painswick Lawn Tennis Club, and is a season ticket holder at Gloucester RFC.

Patrick Underwood
Patrick has behind him a lifetime of working in the IT industry, including setting up and running his own company. He has now retired from his Directorship at EBS,which grew into a premier Sage VAR. His hobbies include watching Gloucester Rugby Football Club and Canal Boating where he assists organising the Saul Canal Festival http://www.junctionevents.org.uk which is held annually in June. He has also recently been appointed as a Member of the Council of Management of the Cotswold Canals Trust.

Howard Guy
Howard spent 37 years with Barclays Bank, during which time he acted as Head of Corporate Credit for the South and South West of England, Assistant Risk Management Director and an Inspector, based in Bristol. Since leaving Barclays he has continued to work in financial consultancy as a commercial Finance Broker and Mortgage and Debt Counsellor.

John McLaughlin
As Economic Regeneration Manager for Gloucestershire County Council, John has been responsible over the past twelve years for supporting the development and delivery of Economic Strategy for the county, with particular emphasis on regeneration programme delivery on behalf of South West of England Regional Development Agency and Government Office South West. He is a Member of two Partnership Boards in Gloucestershire, Director on two community enterprise boards and a trustee of Gloucestershire Environment Trust. John is also a Director of Worcestershire Credit Union Limited. John is also a Parish Councillor in Finstall, Bromsgrove where he lives. 

Keith Stokes-Smith
Keith is a widely experienced business executive, with a Corporate legal and Administrative and Accountancy background. As Group Company Secretary to what were then Public Limited Companies such as Wickes, Lowndes Queensway and British Home Stores, he offers an expertise across a range of disciplines and skill areas including Corporate Governance and Law, Management Accounts and Finance, Intellectual Property and Retail Law, as well as more general fields such as planning, focus, anticipating and resolving problems, juggling priorities and communication. Currently Keith acts as a business consultant, and is Chairman/FD and 50% shareholder of The Phoneworks Ltd, a mobile telecoms franchisor helping SMEs. He also owns and manages two Property acquisition/Development companies with properties mainly in Devon. He is the Consul for Lithuania representing the West Midlands and serves as a Magistrate on the Worcester bench. His interests include music and current affairs. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries, Freeman of the City of London and Trustee of several charities including The Albrighton Trust and WickesAid. He has strong connections with Newton Abbot where he actively supports and chairs a number of local events/activities.

Roger Payne, Business Adviser
Roger Payne is a Business Adviser with the Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund based in Gloucester . Roger spent five years giving business advice to farmers and growers in Cornwall when he worked for MAFF in the late 1970s and early 1980s.For the last twenty years he ran his own small business in Cheltenham . His main responsibility at GDLF is to provide business advice to loan applicants and to analyse their business plans. Roger is married with three children and enjoys mountain biking, gardening and caravanning.