As Palladium Digital enters an exciting new chapter, we are delighted to welcome Tom Miller as our new Chief Financial Officer. With a proven track record in building and scaling finance functions within high-growth, technology-driven businesses, Tom brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective to our leadership team. In this Q&A, Tom shares insights into his professional journey, what drew him to Palladium, and his vision for driving continued growth and value creation across the Group.
Can you share a brief overview of your professional background and the key experiences that have shaped your approach to financial leadership?
I began my career on the PwC graduate scheme, training in tax. However, I quickly realised that large corporate environments and tax weren’t the right fit for me, so I left quite early on, then moved into mid-office finance roles at two investment banks, working as a product controller, which is essentially a financial controller role. After about four years, I knew I wanted something different.
An opportunity arose - through a personal connection - to join an early stage maintenance start up called UniLED Solutions. I was the third person to join, and during my tenure, we grew from sub £100k to circa £8 million turnover, eventually establishing another adtech business, UniLED Software.
In essence UniLED Solutions was a digital screen asset manager, providing tech-enabled services, maintenance, and monitoring for predominantly digital out-of-home media owners, such as Clear Channel and JC Decaux, but also counted football clubs, real estate investment firms and cinema chains in its client portfolio. We experienced rapid growth, expanding to around 65-70 people, managing hundreds of digital assets a across the UK, and opening a US office. My role was highly commercial and cross-departmental, although the focus was very much on building out the finance function from scratch, leading fundraising efforts, and eventually overseeing the sale of the maintenance business in 2022.
After a ten and a half year journey with UniLED, I moved to Illuma, a VC-backed adtech company based in London and New York, where I’ve spent the last 2 years. There, I focused on professionalising the existing finance function, fundraising, enhanced financial modelling, and revenue forecasting. If I were to pick one experience that has shaped my approach to financial leadership, it would be the COVID pandemic. As a young Finance Director of two logistically complicated, fast growth businesses, navigating the challenges faced during that period helped me hone some of the necessary leadership skills, whether ensuring we were sufficiently funded, negotiating with clients and suppliers, or motivating colleagues.
What attracted you to Palladium Group, and what excites you most about joining our team at this stage of the company’s journey?
Several factors attracted me to Palladium Group.
First and foremost, I was very impressed with how far James and Mark have taken the business over the past decade—identifying a niche, building an excellent client base, and earning industry recognition . Their ambition to grow, both organically and through potential acquisitions, was also compelling. It’s clear the company is poised to capitalise on the market opportunity presented by the emergence of AI as a transformative tool for business,
In addition, the strength of the team, combined with the backing of Inspirit Capital and PCB Partners, gives us a solid foundation for the next phase. The recent N15 divestment and the involvement of Inspirit and PCB owners Ben and Tim make this a particularly exciting time, as Palladium embarks on its next chapter as a standalone entity. There’s a real opportunity to start afresh, build on strong foundations, and capitalise on significant domestic and international market opportunities.
As you step into the role of CFO, what are your immediate priorities and what unique perspectives or strategies do you plan to bring to drive Palladium’s continued growth and value creation?
My immediate priority is to ensure a smooth and orderly transition of the finance function from Next15 during the TSA period. This is a critical phase, and it’s important we get it right. There’s a huge amount to do during this intense period of change, as the business once again operates as a standalone entity.
Beyond the transition, my focus will be on identifying synergies across both Group companies, diligently managing cashflow, upgrading controls and processes, enhancing revenue forecasting accuracy and getting underneath the skin of the business, by understanding the data that drives it. Crucially, it will be identifying how we can use that data to support better decision-making.
Overall, I bring a commercial perspective, with a strong focus on unit economics, driving out better margins through an effective utilisation and pricing strategy, which maximises contract value.
I’ll also be exploring growth opportunities, especially through potential acquisitions, whilst ensuring the business remains cashflow positive. Ultimately, my goal is to help Palladium run more efficiently allowing it to achieve consistent, sustainable growth and value creation.
