As newly appointed president and executive director of the British American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, Nicholas Grounds’ route to the ‘sunshine state’ has been as interesting as it has been varied.
Nick was one of the first Robert Kennedy College graduates to complete his MBA in leadership and sustainability with the University of Cumbria in 2012 and continues to enjoy a varied and successful career.
His English accent (and love of football) is as strong now as when he began work at Chase Manhattan Bank in London rising to become responsible for the direction and coordination of the banks’ money market operations department.
Four decades on, his strong work ethic shows little sign of diminishing.
It wasn’t until his fifties that Nick gained a degree in sports management and a MBA in leadership and sustainability from the University of Cumbria.
“The MBA was ideal for me and I’m frequently putting into practice some of the lessons learned from my time at Cumbria which have stood me in good stead today,” Nick says.
As a financial advisor with Evershore Financial Group in Orlando he’s now working to establish links between the US and UK by making the most of his contacts and expertise gained over forty years.
“I’m used to translating plans and visions into success through a career spanning more than four decades of executive management experience in various aspects of sales and marketing,” Nick says.
For two decades he worked on Wall Street for a leading inter-dealer broker of money market instruments. As the Senior Vice President, his responsibilities included managing the strategic product planning, marketing, and departmental budgets within $1billion annual company revenue.
Nick also has a passion for soccer and coached for 17 years, and holds a Premier Coaching License and a Director of Coaching Diploma from the NSCAA, and is currently a scout for Richmond University, England.
Married with four grown children, Nick’s also executive director of Knockout Cancer.
Now his efforts are focused on helping foster better trans-Atlantic relations at a time of uncertainty. He says his ambition is to help British owned businesses in central Florida and the Space Coast make the most of collaborative opportunities.
“Individuals no longer have to pay to join; collaboration is what matters and through bringing a wide range of interests together access to a major market can be achieved,” Nick says. “What I’m keen to do as well is encourage UK businesses to make the most of the BACC here to get a foothold in what I’ve discovered is a thriving and exciting market.”