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Some people build careers. Others build systems. Adam Lever has spent more than twenty-five years doing both.

At first glance, his career appears unconventional. He studied Computers and Communications Engineering at the University of Teesside, beginning his professional life in IT before moving into finance, systems development, operations and ultimately strategic business leadership. Yet throughout every stage of his career, a common thread has remained: a fascination with understanding how organisations work and using technology to make them work better.

Graduating in 2001, Adam entered the workforce at a time when the internet was still young, broadband was a luxury and most SMEs were only beginning to understand what technology could do for their businesses.

His university studies gave him a broad engineering foundation spanning mechanical, electrical, electronic and software disciplines, but systems development truly captured his imagination. His final-year project explored Artificial Intelligence, long before AI became part of everyday business conversation.

While others saw computers as tools, Adam saw possibilities.

Adam joined Masters Pharmaceuticals in Harrow as IT Manager and Pharmaceutical Buyer. In practice, the role reached into almost every part of the business: IT and communications, pharmaceutical purchasing including controlled drugs, stock control, and support for purchase ledger operations.

He transformed the technology estate around him. Rather than settle for beige towers and bulky CRT monitors, Adam visited computer fairs, returned with boxes of components and built more than twenty black-and-silver PCs with TFT screens in the corner of the finance office. Each machine was assembled, configured with Windows XP and deployed personally. He also upgraded the Windows Server 2000 environment, network switches and telephone system.

The business used ISDN, while Adam had already adopted a 0.5 Mbps ADSL connection at home. Always-on connectivity reinforced his conviction that centrally available, web-based systems were the future.

Using Dreamweaver MX, Adam created Masters' first website. He also developed a web-based purchasing system using an Access database hosted on a standalone PC in his office.

The technology was modest, but the design principle was forward-looking: one central database, browser access, no desktop client installation and an automated purchasing process. Long before cloud platforms became normal, Adam was building towards the same destination.

He had reached a similar conclusion about automation and AI. These were not fashionable ideas in 2001. They were simply the logical direction in which he believed technology would move.

Capture information once. Automate the process. Make it accessible. Help people make better decisions.

===== Capture information once. Automate the process. Make it accessible. Help people make better decisions. =====

After Masters, Adam undertook freelance management and IT consultancy, covering systems, standard operating procedures, infrastructure, website design and hosting, and bespoke PC design and build. He then deliberately began a new career in finance.

Roles at NAAFI, Southern Cross Healthcare, Morris Properties, Jet2 and Rural Solutions developed his grounding in ledgers, credit control, rostering, treasury, CIS, month-end accounting and team management. His technical background remained an advantage: he understood not only the numbers, but also the systems and operational processes that produced them.

Across more than nine years at Acorn Mobility Services, Adam progressed from Ledger Manager to Finance Systems Manager. He managed ledger, cash book and treasury responsibilities across an international group, including cash-flow forecasting for 24 bank accounts in seven currencies and nine countries.

His LinkedIn profile records more than £500,000 of gains from currency trading over two years, as well as annual cost savings exceeding £60,000 through improved systems, methodology and team structure.

He then led major finance-systems work, including the global implementation of SAP Business One, training finance teams across four countries, developing Crystal and SQL reports, automating workflows and supporting locally compliant processes in France, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

As a Systems Accountant at the University of Leeds, Adam worked on the Corporate Processes & Systems Project, analysing existing finance processes and designing future structures, systems and ways of working. He also supported planning, forecasting, management accounting and practical process improvements.

At the University of York, his Business Change Manager role brought responsibility for steering finance process and systems development. By this stage, his work had expanded beyond implementation into large-scale organisational change.

Alongside his employed career, Adam became Director of Operations at Instep Properties Ltd, a small family-run business with a vision of providing comfortable, quality homes at good value. This added a direct owner-operator perspective to his experience of finance, systems and transformation.

Today, as Financial Planning & Analysis Manager at 21 Degrees Group, Adam operates where finance, technology and operations meet. His responsibilities include budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, business analytics, ESG reporting, systems migration, operational dashboards and process automation across a multi-company group.

The tools are different from those used at Masters. Lakeview LM4 has given way to Sage, Odoo and Xero. Access databases have given way to cloud platforms. Manually compiled reports have given way to Tableau, SQL, automated models and refreshable dashboards.

But the central challenge remains the same: turn fragmented activity into dependable information, remove unnecessary manual effort and give managers a clearer basis for decisions.

The simplest description of Adam Lever's career is a move from IT into finance. The more accurate description is a career spent connecting people, processes, technology and data.

From an AI project in 2001 to cloud finance, analytics and generative AI in 2026, the technology has changed. The mission has not: understand how the organisation works, design a better system and build something useful.

===== Not an IT career. Not a finance career. A career spent building better systems. =====