
I am Melanie Stevens, a Senior Manager at Finerva. I joined the company in 2017 as the very first employee.
I have several roles at Finerva. I am the company financial controller, overseeing the internal financial processes.
In addition, I support Seema, our Head of Accounting, in managing the team of Account Managers and have a number of clients myself. I am also EIS accredited.
Prior Roles:
- In-house Financial Support for 4th Screen Advertising/Opera Mediaworks.
- 10 years’ experience as an Equity Derivatives Trading Analyst
- Associate Director for UBS and Lehman Brothers
What I most enjoy about working for Finerva is that every day brings a new challenge. Working with start-ups and scale-ups gives me exposure to a broad and diverse range of industries and personalities. I am as excited by learning from them as I am by supporting them and helping them grow their businesses.
Outside of the office, I enjoy dragging my children on walks in the countryside. They especially seem to enjoy the steep uphill variety. I love literature, particularly when I can enjoy it with the sound of the Mediterranean Sea lapping in the background. I also spend many a weekend trying to emulate the contestants of Great British Bake Off – although I haven’t quite got over losing out to Stu for 1st prize in our mini company bake off last year.
Meet our Advisors
Adam Brodie - Co-Founder
Ben Rule - Co-founder
Fiona Cross - Director of Tax Advisory
Seema Kher - Director of FaaS
Rowena Wattrus - Director of Accounts and Tax
Stu Coates - CTO
Mel Stevens - Senior Manager
Jeni Creek - Hub Manager
Magda Braglewicz - Account Manager
Shakira Parkar - Quality Manager
Ingrida Bukotiene - Senior Bookkeeper
Matthew Andrews - Tax Assistant
Agne Petrauskaite - Marketing & Communications Manager
Emanuele D’Amico - Marketing Consultant
Tom Connor - Venture CFO
Myles Treharne - Venture CFO
Louise Broadbent - Venture CFO
Rachael Cavanagh - Account Manager
Nichola Spencer - Bookkeeper
Sharon Prictoe - Finance Manager
Emma Truran - Finance Manager
Sharan Kalsi - Finance Manager
- Antony Tikhonov - Seedrs
“Finerva team are always fast to pick up conversations with the entrepreneurs and understand their needs. Many of them leave us very positive feedback after cooperation with Adam and his team.”
- Dave Cook - Mason & Cook
“Apart from being extremely experienced and knowledgeable in M&A transactions Finerva were very patient and always used language I understood. They gave me confidence and security and I knew they were working for my best interests.”
- Nicola Koronka - Missive
We’ve switched from a top 10 firm to Finerva and have immediately felt the difference. The team understand small business finance and offer strategic yet practical counsel.”
- James Ballard - Soar Running
“Finerva have assisted us on multiple investment rounds. On every occasion the financial models we have built have stood up to the test after many professional investors scrutinized them.”
- Gary McKay – APPII
“Knowing that Finerva understand the pressures of starting a new business is very reassuring.”
- Chris Ward – Klive Agency
“Finerva are very much a partner to Klive and not a supplier. If you are a start up, time starved, focused on building client and customer relationships then trust them to manage your bookkeeping and tax affairs with diligence, accuracy and passion.”
- Riya Pabari – Founders Academy
“Finerva is a fantastic source of insight and strategic counsel over the EIS/SEIS fundraising process – always responsive, clear and thoughtful.”
- Haydn Brooks – Risk Ledger
“R&D Tax Credits – an easy service and good price. Ben put up with my constant questioning and poor writing skills so highly recommended!”
- Phil Barry – Blokur
“Finerva provided excellent advice on structure for our EMI share option scheme, especially when negotiating a fair tax valuation with HMRC.”
- James Hadley - Immersive Labs
“Thank you! You and the team were great for our initial lift off and it has been an amazing experience!”
- Sally Smith - My Clinical Outcomes
“Finerva drove and delivered a highly efficient R&D process from start to finish with a quick turnaround time to receipt of HMRC repayment.”
- James Beddows - RIDEto
“Finerva do things differently – at one of their investor evenings we found an investor who is also a former FTSE100 Executive.”
- Gretchen Lennon - Lennon Legal
”Finerva is my go-to recommendation for clients looking for advice on EIS matters. They combine top-quality technical knowledge with a commercial, practical approach.”
- Bill Cogan - Seven Legal
“Our clients are consistently impressed with Finerva’s expertise, responsiveness and commercial approach to the more complex EIS support required by fast growth clients.”
Our latest Insights
Finerva goes global! - Joining DFK International underscores our commitment to providing our clients with the highest quality financial and business advisory services and delivering even greater value to them.
Green Energy & Renewables: 2023 Valuation Multiples - Green Energy companies saw a slow but steady decline in multiples throughout 2021 and 2022, recording EV/Revenue multiples of 6.4x in Q4 2022.
Is AI a threat to the knowledge based service economy? - Short answer: Yes! Longer answer: It really depends…