Meet the founder

Ian Cass.

Founder · Jack in the Box Training Co

Fourteen years at Diageo building brands through the Venture team he built. Over a decade leading the Forum of Private Business. Now Chairman of the Microbusiness Alliance — and founder of Jack in the Box.

  • 30k+Private & family firms represented (Forum)
  • 1.2mMicrobusinesses spoken for (MBA)
  • 14yrAt Diageo · formed the Venture team
  • 2015MD of the Forum of Private Business

► The story

A career spent
between the boardroom
and the back-room.

Ian's career is unusual in that he has worked at both ends of the business world. Fourteen years at Diageo, where he formed the Venture team. Over a decade at the helm of the Forum of Private Business, the national membership body representing over 30,000 private and family firms. And, since 2021, Chairman of the Microbusiness Alliance — the voice of more than 1.2 million UK micro businesses.

Along the way he's also built things himself: he owned a couple of pubs, founded Hunters Gin, and continues to back small companies as a business angel and investor. So he doesn't just talk about the 1–9 person business — he's run them, owned them, funded them and represented them.

That mix is the foundation of Jack in the Box. The creative and innovation tools that work in a global FTSE giant can work for a 1–9 person business — but only if you strip them back, translate them, and rebuild them around how micro businesses actually operate. Ian founded Jack in the Box Training Co to put three decades of that thinking into a practical, full-day format any micro business owner can use the very next morning.

► In Ian's words

I am passionate about providing this support, advice and protection to small and micro businesses, enabling them to do what they do best — growing and developing their business. They are not 'big business only smaller', and they need a different approach and tailored support. Private and family businesses are the backbone of the UK economy, and there are lots of entrepreneurs in the sector who want to be innovative and want to grow; they just need the support to do so.
Ian Cass Managing Director · Forum of Private Business Chairman · Microbusiness Alliance

Career

Four stops.
One through-line.

From multinational ventures to a national voice for the smallest firms — and now, into the workshop room with you.

  1. 01

    14 years · Formed the Venture team

    Diageo

    Fourteen years inside one of the world's largest drinks companies, where Ian went on to form the Venture team — the discipline of building something new inside a complex, established organisation. Big-brand rigour, start-up appetite.

    Innovation at scale
  2. 02

    Joined 2013 · MD since 2015

    Forum of Private Business

    Ian joined the Forum in 2013 and took the reins as Managing Director in summer 2015. Founded in 1977, the Forum now represents over 30,000 private & family firms — turning the lived reality of owner-led businesses into a voice government and industry actually listen to.

    National voice · 30k+ firms
  3. 03

    Chairman & spokesperson since 2021

    Microbusiness Alliance

    Formed during the pandemic — when the voice of micro businesses simply wasn't being heard, and the wrong support (or no support) was being offered as a result. Ian became Chairman in 2021. The MBA now speaks for over 1.2 million UK microbusinesses.

    1.2m microbusinesses
  4. 04

    Founder · Present day

    Jack in the Box Training Co

    Everything above, distilled. Full-day workshops and bespoke consultancy built ground-up for micro business — so the creativity and innovation tools used by the world's largest firms finally transfer down.

    Pop! — present day

From boardroom to back-room — and back again.

Beyond the day-jobs

Built, owned & backed.

Alongside the big roles, Ian has spent years on the operator side of small business — running them, founding them, and putting his own money behind them.

01

Spirits · Founder

Hunters Gin

Founded his own craft gin brand — taking a product from idea to bottle to bar, with all the messy reality of building a consumer business from scratch.

02

Hospitality · Owner

A couple of pubs

Owned and operated pubs in his own right — the front-line of running a small, owner-led business where every shift, supplier and customer is personal.

03

Angel · Investor

Backing small firms

Long-running business angel and investor across a variety of small companies — spotting, funding and mentoring the kind of micro businesses he champions.

► What shapes the work

What this career
puts into every workshop.

01

Big-brand toolkit

Innovation frameworks, idea-generation techniques and venture thinking developed and stress-tested inside a global FTSE-100 business.

02

Translated for 1–9

Stripped back, rebuilt and reshaped around how owner-led teams of 1–9 people actually run their day — no specialist department required.

03

Voice of the small firm

Years spent representing private business and microbusiness at a national level — the workshops are written from inside the world they serve.

Work with Ian

Ready to think
outside the box?

Workshops, bespoke consultancy and practical AI — delivered personally by Ian to micro businesses across the UK. Drop your details and he'll be in touch.

Get in touch See the programmes