I've always been fascinated by aviation. The complexity of it, the scale of it, the fact that the whole thing somehow works.

I'd spent years in commercial aviation watching airlines and airports try to plan routes, set strategy, and manage costs, but doing so largely in the dark. So, we started RDC: initially as a consultancy; we'd get a brief, dig into the numbers, and come back with answers. We were good at it. But every engagement felt like reinventing the wheel. Eventually it became obvious that the smarter move wasn't to keep selling our time; it was to build the thing the whole industry needed and couldn't find anywhere else.

That shift from consultancy to data was everything. We started collecting data ourselves, building it into products clients could use directly, and the model transformed. The research became proprietary. The products became sticky: what started as a small team of aviation obsessives in Nottingham grew into something hundreds of airlines, airports and analysts around the world now rely on every day.

The Nuvo journey began in 2004 with a conversation in a pub about how we could create an accountancy practice that could do so much more than the traditional firms of the time.

We set out on the principles of building a great team and empowering them with technology to help clients look forward, not just backward. Transparent, fixed pricing, rare in accountancy at the time, completed the foundation on which Nuvo was built.

As we scaled, we recognised the importance of building solid foundations across the central team, allowing the experts in the business to do more of what they are great at. That gave us the platform to expand initially regionally, then nationally, both organically and through acquisitions and partnerships.

Today those founding principles are still at the heart of Nuvo: a relentless focus on our people, culture and core values; people powered by technology; local, partner-led relationships backed by central support. The Nuvo way, as a fully integrated business.

We see the developments in our sector as a huge opportunity to continue evolving what we have built, with further technology improvements powering our people, a more proactive and forward-looking role for our advisors, and continued national growth across accountancy and complementary services, helping more clients to succeed.

We first met on the trading floor in the early 2000’s. A lot has changed since then. But the vision and mission behind what we do has not.

The idea for AmplifyME came from a shared frustration. Banks and hedge funds were hiring on pedigree because they had no reliable way to identify genuine ability. Universities were turning out smart graduates who'd never felt the heat of a live market. Talented people from the ‘wrong’ background were being filtered out before they ever got a chance to prove themselves. We'd both seen it. And we both thought it was fixable.

So, in 2009, we left the floor and built the thing we wished had existed. Not a course. Not a textbook. A simulation: as close to the real thing as we could make it, accessible to anyone with the drive to try.

We started with trading. We ran sessions and watched students light up. Then we expanded into banking, asset management, quant. The simulations got richer. The platform got bigger. The universities and banks started coming to us.

But the thing that still gets us out of bed is the same thing that started it all. Somewhere right now there's a student who has everything it takes — the instincts, the hunger, the raw ability — and the only thing standing between them and the career they deserve is the chance to show it.

That's what AmplifyME is for.