Scotland’s new dealmaker of the year on the importance of trust in closing deals

Roger Mayor of HNH Partners took one of the most anticipated awards of the night at the Scotland Dealmakers Awards 2026, held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on November 11.

Roger Mayor | David Monaghan

The other contenders were Campbell Cummings of Johnston Carmichael, Daniel Halliday of Foresight Group, Gordon Burns of Azets and Richard Pugh of BGF.

“I’m incredibly proud but also in a slight state of shock,” Roger said. “I wasn’t expecting that. But it’s good for the team and the HNH brand as well.”

Roger completed six deals in the past 12 months.

Across its Belfast and Edinburgh offices, HNH completed 40 transactions worth more than £525m in a record year.

He was reluctant to single out one transaction but named the sale of Solutions Driven to Groupe Adéquat as particularly satisfying.

That deal came as AI hit recruitment businesses hard and Roger’s work on the gap between enterprise value and equity value, through the working capital position and the profit ticker, pushed the final terms beyond shareholders’ expectations.

His other deals included Muirhall Energy’s acquisition of Levenseat, a waste recycling business fresh out of administration.

He also led a £2m growth capital raise for Glasgow-based Connekt EV from Growth Fund I,.

What defined his year was range rather than any one result.

“It’s the variety of the different deals, fundraise, sell side, some distressed buy side,” he said.

“I got to work on a number of different types of deals, and that variety really is the highlight for me.”

Roger joined HNH, which was set up in Scotland in 2019, as a partner from Deloitte in 2024.

He had previously worked at Grant Thornton, spent five years at Lloyds Banking Group and worked with private equity house LDC.

Over 20 years he has worked on more than 100 deals.

“It hopefully gives different perspectives, so we can help clients in different ways and advise them in the best way,” he said. “I try to lean on everything I’ve done over my whole career.”

He has built the HNH team by bringing in people he has worked with before and avoiding filling roles in a hurry.

“It’s about trying to take our time, not rush to the first person who applies,” he said. “It’s about building a team that’s all moving in the same direction. We’re a growing independent business ourselves, so we have a lot of empathy with what our clients are going through.”

For an independent firm, Roger says, keeping momentum comes down to one thing – the pipeline.

“As an independent CF advisory firm, every time we sell a business, we have to find a new one to sell,” he said.

“So it’s really about getting out there, meeting interesting businesses, building relationships and helping them on whatever transactional journey they’re on.”

What drives him, though, is the moment a founder hands over what they have built.

“When somebody asks me to sell a business for them, I view that as a huge position of responsibility,” he said.

“They’ve built that business up over 10, 20, 30 years. I take a lot of pride in the fact they’ve trusted me to do that.

“Working with owner-managed businesses and helping them realise their goals is what really excites me.”