private equity

At 18, while many of his peers were heading off to university, Toby Driver made a different choice. He joined an accounting practice through an apprenticeship, a decision driven by his desire for a “quick learning curve” and real exposure to business, he tells us. From the outset, he was less interested in credentials than in understanding how organizations actually work. That instinct carried him through years in audit and into transaction services, where he learned to dissect businesses at speed. In deal advisory, Driver was tasked with getting “under the nuts and bolts” of companies, performing financial health checks with significant value at stake, he tells us. The work sharpened his ability to spot value drivers—but it also revealed a blind spot he wouldn’t fully appreciate until later. CFOTL: Tell us about Ideagen and its value proposition today.Driver: Absolutely. When I talk about Ideagen, I like to start with our purpose. We’re a software business, but our mission is about keeping people, processes, and products safe on a global scale. I often explain it by saying we help put safe food…