James Lay

James joined Larking Gowen in 1998 and has been advising clients on buying, selling and valuing businesses since 2004. He joined the partnership in 2014 and has been the firm’s Chairman since 2020. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds the ICAEW Corporate Finance qualification. James has vast experience of selling businesses, much of which is encapsulated in his book, Selling Your Business: What you need to know before, during and after your sale.

As an accredited and award-winning business advisor, Motivational Maps practitioner, NLP practitioner and Mental Health First Aider, James also works as a performance coach, helping business leaders develop and achieve their goals. This was also the subject of a fun and informative regular podcast, Leadership & Life Chat, which James co-founded and co-hosted for a number of years.

James was raised and educated on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and studied at Aston University.