Born in 1960 and educated at Prince Henry's Grammar School Evesham, Nigel graduated in 1981 from Bristol University with a First Class honours in Economics and Accounting. Nigel qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984.

As well as being a part-time Examiner to the Institute of Chartered Accountants for nearly ten years, Nigel has spent 20 years in industry working in a range of companies including being the Chief Executive of Sportinbet plc, a Listed Company,which in 2006 had a market value of £2bn; as the Finance and I.T. Director of Scottish and Newcastle in England; as the Commercial Director of Polestar (Europe's largest Magazine printer) and as the Finance Director of Brann Marketing.

Nigel founded Merlin Financial Advisors in 2006 and brings to it an extensive range of experience covering accounting; taxation; technology; company flotations; management buy-outs; acquisitions; disposals and profit improvement consulting.