Richard Finlay

Position: Commercial Director

Richard Finlay is the Group CEO of the Crown Industries Portfolio of Companies. Taking an entrepreneurial leap less than a decade ago, Richard; with a background in IT & Communications is the quintessential business man who saw an opportunity and created the organisational structures to pursue it.

At the forefront of the I.P infrastructure sector in the UK and Ireland for nearly 25 years, FOIS are a leading provider of network framework services to both public and private industry. It is here that Finlay staked his enterprising career path as Sales Director in 2001, Managing Director in 2005, with the ultimate goal of acquiring the company achieved in 2006, whereby he trebled turnover in 18 months.

Richard has continued to invest heavily in his product portfolio developing the strategy of the company into advanced and emerging markets, servicing clients throughout the UK, Ireland and the Middle East. The Group now incorporates four distinctive companies, each with a competent, reliable and industry leading focus in respective areas of building engineering services:

• FOIS – Network infrastructure services providing best-in-class Passive I.P design services and structured cabling portfolios from industry pioneers, including blown fibre architecture, In-Building Wi-Fi and DCIM.
• CARA NETWORK SOLUTIONS – Network solutions integrator with specialisms in design consultancy, edge switching, Fibre To The Office (FTTO) and wireless solutions.
• CROWN FIRE SECURITY – I.P focused fire and security division offering leading edge protection for commercial business.
• CROWN FIRE PROTECTION – A leading provider of mechanically based fire protection and suppression systems. Incorporating design, supply, installation and maintenance in uniquely different market segments.

A new venture for Richard is PROANO, a Fire Suppression Technology company that has proprietary technology in the field of Low Pressure Water Mist. Proano’s primary function is to develop, patent and manufacture new products in the fields of fire suppression, using low pressure water mist technology. Core product, NANOMIST, is a clean and green alternative to chemical suppression systems.

Each company has its own idiosyncratic service but these also have a high degree of cross-over, Richard is developing the group with a current turnover of £8m to combine this expertise and is firmly committed to shaping the future of the industry.