Insider's reigning Young Dealmaker of the Year has been on the Manchester corporate finance scene for seven years, after a stint at PwC in Leeds, where he also studied for a pharmacology degree.  But when the prospect of a PhD didn't appeal, he turned to financial services and latterly corporate finance via the business recovery team. 

Mitchell is part of a small but dynamic team at Rickitt Mitchell, which has been instrumental in deals for NCC Group and the float of airline Flybe, among other big names.  He says the approach of a small firm enables him to develop relationships properly, building a series of transactions to tick off and a real consensus on when, where and how deals should be done.

Career highlights include working for Instem Life Science Systems, which he helped to float in 2010 and subsequently advised on its acquisition of medical software business BioWisdom.  He has also worked closely with Kids Allowed's chief executive Jennie Johnson to raise development capital and Dan Wright's Vision Support Services Group on the deal to buy Irish business Lissadell.

Mitchell is working on bringing six deals to market at the moment, including three disposals and two acquisitions.  To succeed in this market, he says, deals need to bring something that sets them apart from the rest and advisers need to be really confident that they will actually happen.