After almost 36 years with Yorkshire Bank, Kevin Newson is embarking on a whole new career.

At the age of 52, the Clifton man, whose several roles have ranged from branch manager at Huddersfield and Dewsbury to key posts in business and private banking, has set up his own company, KCN Consultancy Services Ltd, to bring his years of experience to bear for the benefit of West Yorkshire SMEs.

His new venture sees Kevin working with companies as a non-executive director or in an ambassadorial role to provide support for client businesses’ top management teams and help raise their profile.

Kevin is already working with Halifax-based insurance broker Wilby Ltd as an ambassador and has a similar role with Active Financial Services, a firm of independent financial advisers which is based in Stockton-on-Tees, but is looking to expand into West Yorkshire.

He is also assisting business recovery firm Walsh Taylor, with offices in Bradford, as a non-executive director.

Kevin spent most of his career at Yorkshire Bank in business banking and latterly private banking.

For eight years, he was senior partner for business banking covering Kirklees and Calderdale and for the last two years before leaving the bank worked for Yorkshire Bank parent National Australia Bank’s commercial real estate operation in Leeds.

He spent three years in London in Yorkshire Bank’s treasury department and also opened a branch in High Wycombe before returning to West Yorkshire as assistant manager at Halifax in the 1990s.

Kevin said: “I have had the experience of heading a team – dealing with operational and organisational issues, cost control, business generation and staffing – all the issues that owner-managers of SMEs face.”

At KCN Consultancy Services Ltd, Kevin is helping client firms in areas such as growth and improving profitability, business development, finance and refinance, mentoring and coaching, performance management and cost reduction and process improvement.

Said Kevin: “SMEs can often use someone like me to help them with advice and guidance, but they don’t need someone on a full-time basis. They may need someone to come in two or three days a month or help with specific projects.

“Often, people running SMEs don’t have someone to talk to outside the business who has been out in the commercial world. They can’t talk to their staff or managers, so having some one as a sounding board who can give them an open and honest view is invaluable. People in banking have an immense amount of transferable skills – and it’s those skills I’m now using to benefit other businesses.”