Rod Flavell

Founder & CEO · FDM Group

IT services — professional training, recruitment and consultant placementLondon, United Kingdom

Rod Flavell co-founded the business that became FDM Group in Brighton in 1990 and has run it ever since — through an acquisition that changed its business model, a 2005 AIM flotation, a 2009 management buyout back into private hands, and a return to the London Stock Exchange main market in 2014 at a £308 million valuation. FDM recruits, trains and places IT and business consultants with large corporate clients, and has built its reputation on routes into technology that the industry otherwise neglects — graduates, women returning to work after a career break, and ex-forces personnel.

Last reviewed: Sep 19, 2026

Rod Flavell

Founder & CEO FDM Group

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Rod Flavell has run the same company for more than thirty-five years, through two stock market listings and one trip back into private ownership. He co-founded the business in Brighton on 25 September 1990 as Flavell Divett, alongside Jacqueline Flavell and the brothers Brian and Julian Divett. Its current shape dates from 1995, when the acquisition of Mountfield Software moved it into training and placing IT consultants, and the FDM Group name followed in 1998. The model FDM settled on is distinctive: rather than recruiting experienced consultants and reselling them, it recruits people at the start of a career, trains them itself, and places them with large corporate clients on its own payroll. That makes it a training business as much as a staffing one, and it is the reason FDM has been able to draw from talent pools the rest of the industry treats as marginal — graduates without commercial experience, women returning after a career break, and service leavers. Flavell took the company onto AIM in 2005, led a management buyout to take it private in 2009, and brought it back to the London Stock Exchange in June 2014 at a £308 million valuation. FDM reported revenue of £334.0 million for 2023 with around 5,500 employees across 18 locations.

Career Highlights

  • Co-founded the business on 25 September 1990 in Brighton, originally trading as Flavell Divett, and has been Chief Executive throughout.
  • Repositioned the firm into training and placing consultants after acquiring Mountfield Software in 1995; renamed it FDM Group in 1998.
  • Floated the company on the Alternative Investment Market in 2005, raising £3 million net.
  • Led a 2009 management buyout backed by Inflexion, taking FDM private.
  • Returned FDM to the London Stock Exchange main market in June 2014 at a £308 million valuation.
  • Grew the business to £334.0 million of revenue and £55.0 million of operating income in 2023, with around 5,500 employees across 18 worldwide locations.
  • Made FDM the UK’s leading graduate employer in IT.
  • Built structured routes into technology careers through Women in IT, Returners to Work and ex-Forces and veteran programmes.
  • Recognised in European CEO’s 2015 awards.

Professional Journey

Nothing is publicly documented about Flavell before 1990. The company was incorporated on 25 September 1990 in Brighton under the name Flavell Divett, founded by Rod Flavell with Jacqueline Flavell and with Brian Divett as chairman and Julian Divett as chief operating officer. It was not, at that point, the business it is now.

The decisive move came in 1995 with the acquisition of Mountfield Software, after which the firm reoriented around training and placing consultants. The name FDM Group followed in 1998. That shift defined everything since. The conventional IT staffing model buys experienced contractors and resells their time, which makes margin a function of how tight the market is. FDM’s model instead recruits people who do not yet have commercial experience, trains them at its own cost, employs them directly, and places them with client organisations — a structure that carries more risk and more capital requirement up front, and produces a much more durable business if the training actually works.

It also creates an unusual alignment between commercial interest and social outcome. Because FDM is not filtering for existing experience, it can recruit from groups that the industry’s normal hiring filters exclude — graduates without a technology degree, women returning to work after a career break, and people leaving the armed forces with strong operational discipline and no corporate track record. FDM has built named programmes around each, and they are a genuine competitive asset rather than a corporate social responsibility exercise, because they expand the pool of candidates the company can convert.

The capital markets story has been unusually eventful for a services business. FDM listed on AIM in 2005, raising £3 million net — a modest flotation. In 2009, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Flavell led a management buyout with Sheila Flavell and Andy Brown, backed by the private equity firm Inflexion, taking the company private again. Five years of growth later, FDM returned to the public markets with a London Stock Exchange main market listing in June 2014, valued at £308 million — roughly two orders of magnitude above where the AIM listing had begun.

The company Flavell runs today reported revenue of £334.0 million and operating income of £55.0 million for 2023, employs around 5,500 people and operates from 18 locations worldwide with a London headquarters, chaired by David Lister. Sheila Flavell CBE serves as chief operating officer. Flavell was recognised in European CEO’s 2015 awards, which cited his twenty-five years at the helm at that point, FDM’s standing as the UK’s leading IT graduate employer, and the returner, women in IT and ex-forces programmes.

Education

No education was found in any public source for Rod Flavell. Neither his academic background nor any career before the 1990 founding of the company is documented anywhere that could be located, and none is asserted here.