Ben Johnson
Founder & CEO
Strategist and architect with more than two decades defining and delivering enterprise-scale digital business. Founded BML in 2017 after five years running the back-office replatform at Bupa Global.
The transaction is our vertical.
A company or its investor buys, sells or separates a business, and something then has to make the operating model actually change. That is our work: business change and technology change run together, on a transaction clock, from before the deal through to the next exit.
- Transactions
- 50
- Enterprise value
- £20bn
01
What we do
We run the business and technology change of a deal.
Four stages, one team, one record. Every engagement is led by someone who has done the job client-side, and every engagement runs on our own software. That combination is the firm.
- 01
Before the deal
Readiness, commercial and technology diligence, and a costed view of what it really takes to own the asset.
- 02
Separate or integrate
Carve-out, TSA exit, integration and day one, with the operating model moved rather than patched over.
- 03
Create the value
The value plan run to realised numbers: cost, systems, data, AI adoption and the behaviour change behind it.
- 04
Ready for exit
Evidence a buyer believes, an estate that stands up in diligence, and a story the business has already proved.
02
Evidence, not adjectives
Fifty engagements is not the argument. It's the evidence.
£50m
Poor investment avoided
PE fund (buy-side diligence)
£10m
Deal adjustment
Bridgestone
6 months
Faster integration, and 30% cheaper
Affidea
£100m
New contracts attributed to Avail
Saint-Gobain / Jewson
£28m
Savings delivered
Royal Mail
03
Why BML
BML is the company an organisation brings in to run consequential change end to end, from readiness through diligence, transition, value creation and exit. The transaction is our vertical because it is the sharpest test of that, forcing strategy, technology, operations, finance and people to move together in months rather than years.
01
Led by someone who has done the job client-side
Every engagement is led by a team member who has held the role you are hiring for.
CTOs, CIOs, chief transformation officers and divisional operators, twenty years each, in the room from readiness through to exit. No pyramid, and no handover to a delivery team you have not met.
02
Run on software we built and own
Every engagement runs on BML/OS.
Workstreams, decisions, risks and value levers in one record, with owners, dates and realised numbers. Everyone on the transaction works in the same place, so the evidence exists before anyone asks for it.
03
That combination is the firm
Judgement in the room, method in the software.
Business change and technology change are one engagement, not two workstreams reporting to each other. An ERP replacement is an operating model decision. A carve-out is a technology separation. A value plan is a data problem.
04
BML/OS
BML/OS is the software that runs the deal.
A platform we built and own. It runs the whole lifecycle, before and after the deal, at fund, portfolio company and corporate development level. Everyone on the transaction works in it, so risk, dependencies and value creation are managed one way. Every value lever carries an owner, a date and a realised number, so sponsor and management read the same page.
Onboard
Clients and consultants
Run
The whole lifecycle
Prove
Value tracked to cash
Scale
Portfolio and portco
Reporting
Generated from the work
Evidence
Exit-ready by default
05
People
A senior leadership team, backed by a vetted network.
CTOs, CIOs, chief transformation officers, integration leads and divisional operators inside PE portfolios, twenty years each, plus specialists we bring in by situation. BML was founded in 2017 when the Digital Director of Royal Mail met the CTO of the Post Office. A BML partner is always in the room, and always owns the outcome.
Charlie Cannell
Chair
Chair and advisor with deep private equity experience, scaling digital-first businesses and creating long-term shareholder value. Previously the digital driving force inside Inflexion, having earlier led broadband portfolio at BT and integrated digital across major ad agencies.
Jaco Vermeulen
Founder & CTO
M&A technology advisory specialist and career PE portfolio and corporate CTO. Twenty-five years enabling M&A transactions and delivering pragmatic value creation and business transformation. Co-founded BML in 2017 while CTO of the Post Office.
Christel Errill Wolthoorn
Chief Operating Officer
A dedicated business leader and transformation specialist with 15+ years running delivery alongside senior leaders in fast-paced global environments. Holds the operating discipline of the firm: how engagements are staffed, run and evidenced.
Consequential change, delivered.