Translating international turnaround lessons for the Australian market

Mark Dewar

Australian Practice Leader, FTI Consulting

Mark Dewar has more than 20 years of experience principally advising corporations, private equity investors and junior debt providers. Mark’s focus is in helping clients who are undergoing significant change, either throughout or as a result of a transaction, or through a period of under-performance.

The services Mark provides include advice on complex financial restructurings, preparing or reviewing forecasts, providing cash management and performance improvement services and advising investors who have exposure to, or are looking to invest in underperforming or distressed assets.

Mark’s assignments have included advising the Australian Board of the world’s largest private coal company while its parent was in Chapter 11, advising on the carve out and merger of two of Australia’s largest office supplies businesses, advising the board of a Cypriot Bank through the Greek financial crisis and supporting various hedge funds in the investment in distressed assets in Greece, Ireland, Iceland and Spain.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mark was a director in the London Corporate Finance practice at Ernst & Young and prior to that Mark worked for a FTSE 100 IT services company and for Credit Suisse First Boston in New York. He commenced his career in Australia, where he worked in the Audit practice at Ernst & Young.

Neil Hayward

Partner, KordaMentha Corporate

Neil helps clients rapidly and sustainably improve EBITDA and cash through operational improvements to optimise the value of their organisation.

Neil works alongside boards and management teams as a senior advisor to identify and then execute a turnaround or transformation plan. Often taking leadership roles. As an example he is currently the director of a private equity fund and a mining business to assist with their turnarounds.

Neil is a partner in KordaMentha’s Corporate turnaround team in Sydney and spent the past twenty plus years in similar roles for Alvarez & Marsal in the Middle East and PwC in the Middle East, US, Europe and the UK.

Samantha Findley

Director, Special Situations Investments, Gordon Brothers

Samantha joined Gordon Brothers in 2020 and is responsible for special situations investments and lending opportunities across all industries in Australia. In her role, she will oversee transactions from initial concept and origination to deal execution and portfolio management.  Samantha is a results-orientated executive with over 15 years of experience delivering creative financial and restructuring solutions for businesses facing complex liquidity and operational challenges.  Samantha understands stakeholder intricacies and works closely with clients to assist them in implementing transformation and turnaround initiatives.

Her background as a workout banker and a restructuring and insolvency professional has provided her with the essential skills to understand business fundamentals and capital requirements.  Most recently, Samantha headed an Australia wide team at National Australia Bank that managed the bank’s SME-client impaired asset portfolio.  Prior to this, Samantha was an Executive Director at KordaMentha, where she advised clients and stakeholders on financial and operational restructuring scenarios and played pivotal roles in some of Australia’s most high-profile restructuring engagements.