TMA People
The TMA Australia Board consist of highly regarded professionals who are deeply connected to the turnaround industry and dedicate a significant amount of their own time to the TMA and the overall betterment of the turnaround and corporate renewal in Australia.
Chair
Carl Gunther (CTP)
Carl is an accomplished senior executive with turnaround and financial restructuring expertise with corporate strategy, finance, M&A integration and separation credentials across the UK, Asia and Australia. He has over 25 years financial and operational restructuring experience having led teams in complex restructuring projects across multiple industries. Carl was the national Turnaround Lead for KPMG Australia and retired from the KPMG partnership on December 2019. Carl regularly presents on turnaround and restructuring topics, he holds a number of Company Director positions and continues to advise on turnaround matters.
President
Maria O’Brien
Baker & McKenzie
Maria is the head of the Restructuring & Insolvency (R&I) practice in Baker McKenzie’s Australian offices, led the firm’s Asia Pacific R&I Working Group for 3 years, and is on the global R&I Steering Committee. She has considerable insolvency experience both litigious and advisory acting for insolvent companies and their directors (including in safe harbour assignments), as well as for administrators, receivers and liquidators, and for creditors. Maria is a Band One ranked lawyer in Restructuring/Insolvency by Chambers and has been ranked in the peer-assessed Best Lawyers for Insolvency and Reorganisations every year since 2009. She is a member of the Federal Court’s Commercial & Corporations (Insolvency) User’s Group, and co-author of the Australian chapter for the Asian Business Law Institute’s Principles of Business Restructuring Project.
Vice President
Chris Martin
KordaMentha
Chris is one of Australia’s leading transformation, turnaround and corporate renewal advisors. He is a qualified solicitor and chartered accountant with a broad range of advisory and operational experience. Having previously worked as a management consultant and an investment banker Chris has a long history in assessing and improving corporate performance. He works with C-suite executives and public sector enterprises in assisting them with their most challenging issues.
Director
Paul Apathy
Herbert Smith Freehills
Paul is a highly experienced practitioner specialising in restructuring, insolvency and special situations. He is also the global co-chair of the firm’s Restructuring, Turnaround and Insolvency practice.
He has extensive regional, international and cross-border experience advising creditors, companies, private equity and hedge funds in respect of restructurings and distressed situations. His clients include corporates such as Speedcast, Arq Group, Retail Food Group, Imdex and Arrium; banks such as National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Bank, Nomura and Standard Chartered Bank; and funds such as Carlyle, KKR, Värde, HPS, Blackstone and OCP, along with other leading corporations, banks, funds and insolvency firms.
Director
Jennifer Ball
Clayton Utz
Jennifer is a Partner in the Restructuring & Insolvency practice who is consistently recognised by clients and peers in major legal directories as a recognised leader and expert in restructuring and insolvency, banking and finance related matters, debt recovery and general commercial dispute resolution.
Director
Cameron Belyea
Clayton Utz
Cameron Belyea leads contested debt and capital market engagements, focusing on restructuring, corporate takeover, tax controversy engagements and complex insolvencies. He acts for sponsors, boards, financial institutions, funds, financial and investment banking advisors and turnaround advisers leading corporate restructures.
Director
Gayle Dickerson
KPMG
Gayle is a partner in Deals Advisory at KPMG, focused on turnaround, restructuring and insolvency, with over 15 years of experience, in both the UK and Australia. She is a registered insolvency practitioner and NSW Committee member of the Turnaround Management Association. She has acted in a range of corporate insolvency, restructuring and advisory matters and acts for a range of stakeholders including corporates, Government, lenders, employees and shareholders.
Director
Marcus Derwin
R Cubed Group
Marcus is a highly experienced corporate executive with an extensive background in corporate restructuring, turnaround consulting and crisis management. He has operated in executive and Board roles across a vast cross section of industry sectors as CEO, COO, Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) and in senior Finance roles across a number of international markets (including the USA, UK and Australia).
Director
Zina Edwards
Hamilton Locke
Zina is a founding partner of law firm Hamilton Locke. She is a finance and restructuring lawyer focused on the non-bank lender market. She advises numerous funds, asset managers and other non-bank participants in relation to investments in complex structured finance and hybrid transactions, secondary trades, restructuring and special situations. Zina has also worked on a large number of distressed and performing portfolio sale transactions in Australia and across Asia acting for both purchasers and sellers.
Director
Ben Gibson
Gordon Brothers
Ben Gibson is responsible for the leadership and oversight of Gordon Brothers’ Perth office. Ben has over 24 years of experience in the valuation and auction industry, managing large scale asset valuation and sale projects on behalf of banks, insolvency practitioners and large corporations across many industries.
Director
Richard Hughes
Deloitte
Richard is the Queensland Restructuring Services Lead Partner. He specialises in corporate insolvency and business turnaround and has over 20 years of professional experience. His clients include corporates, major financiers and other professional advisors. Richard has a broad range of experience across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, property, retail, tourism, motor vehicle dealers; however, his main speciality is Agribusiness.
Director
Premjit Kaur
Fortress Investment Group
Premjit Kaur is a Managing Director in the Sydney office of Fortress Investment Group which she joined in early 2007. Premjit has been involved in all aspects of the business including originating, evaluating, executing, managing and realising exit of investments. This is across both primary investments and investments on the secondary market.
Director
Jeffrey Largier
Allegro Funds
Jeffrey has over ten years of experience in investment banking and private equity. Jeffrey commenced his career at UBS Investment Bank in Sydney in 2007, where he worked in the General Industrials and Financial Institutions Groups. While at UBS, Jeffrey was involved in advising a range of clients across private equity and corporates on buy-side, sell-side and capital raising engagements.
Jeffrey joined Allegro in 2013. Jeffrey is responsible for deal sourcing, appraisal and execution as well as management of portfolio companies including various operational turnaround initiatives. During his time at Allegro, Jeffrey has been involved in the acquisition, turnaround and/or transformation of TSC Group, Carpet Court, Eagle Boys, JSW Australia, Terrex Seismic and Questas Group.
Director
John Nestel (CTP)
Faraday Associates
John co-founded Faraday in 2018 having retired from the partnership at Herbert Smith Freehills. John had been a partner of Freehills for 20 years. During that time he was Global Head of Finance, he formed the Restructuring, Turnaround and Insolvency Group inside HSF, he was a champion for the firm’s renewable energy and clean technology practices and led the firm’s relationships with the world’s largest credit funds. Prior to joining Freehills, John was associate to Justice Morling of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. John has played a major role in significant financing transactions, including a large number of high-profile privatisations and infrastructure projects, most recently in the renewable energy, transportation, telecommunications, and media and gaming industries.
Director
Jason Preston
McGrathNicol
Jason is the Chairman of McGrathNicol and has more than 20 years of restructuring and insolvency experience. As a highly regarded specialist, he helps businesses facing operational and financial distress. Jason has advised on many of the landmark restructuring matters in the Australian market. He also works with company boards and management to provide strategic and innovative solutions to challenging situations. Examples of high profile assignments include buy side financial advice to Cyrus Capital on Virgin Australia, advising Babcock & Brown on a financial restructure and asset divestment process, acting as the administrator of Toys R Us and as the receiver of Quintis Ltd.
Director
Michael Sloan
Ashurst
Michael Sloan is a partner in Ashurst’s restructuring, insolvency and special situations practice. He is a leader in the restructuring and insolvency market and has been involved in many of the largest and most complex matters in Australian history, including recently playing a lead role in the Financial Services Royal Commission.
Michael is on the global board of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) (and is a past Chairman and President of TMA Australia). He is an Australian government representative on the Enhancing Cross-Border Insolvency Cooperation expert working group. He is also a Senior University Lecturer on Corporate Insolvency (post-graduate) at Monash University. Michael has also been an international consultant with the Asian Development Bank in relation to insolvency law reform.
Director
Jane Starkins
Scottish Pacific
An innovative financial services leader with hands on experience in relationship and credit management, having led team and clients across a broad spectrum of industries including food and beverage, FMCG, transport & logistics and manufacturing sectors.
Strengths include building and leading high-performance teams with strong, positive culture. Proven capabilities in managing stakeholder relationships, risk (credit / operational) and delivering outcomes in difficult circumstances. Appreciates challenges and enjoys tackling problems that require novel approaches to resolution. Focused on organisation and business unit strategy; passionate in translating and executing strategy through all roles across the team. Sound written and oral communication, an eye for detail, and an unyielding focus on driving excellence in client service.
Director
Kate White
Glas Agency
Kate joined Global Loan Agency Services Australia (GLAS Australia) on its inception in the Australia market in 2017. Kate has led and contributed to building the business in Australia to a level where GlAS Australia now manages in excess of 150 financial transaction and has a growing team of 15 staff.