Lessons from Legends: Mark Korda and Stephen Parbery share their insights with the TMA’s NextGen professionals

Event Debrief

by Saskia van Loon (Johnson Winter & Slattery) and Member of the NSW NextGen Committee

The NSW NextGen Committee held its ‘Lessons from Legends’ Christmas event in Sydney in early December 2018.

The special guests or rather Legends for the event were Mark Korda (KordaMentha) and Stephen Parbery (Ferrier Hodgson) who both have over 30 years’ experience in the restructuring and turnaround industry and who both need little introduction.

Nicholas Edwards (Johnson Winter & Slattery) the retiring Chair of the NextGen acted as MC for the evening and ran the Legends through a number of questions including:

• What was the catalyst to start an independent firm?
• What was the career-defining matter?
• Who was the most difficult character to deal with?
• Does increased media scrutiny change the way you would go about a large engagement, and how do you engage with the media?

At the end of the session, Mark and Stephen gave some tips to those starting out in the industry and from their experience, including:

• Sounding boards – it is important to have people in the industry and outside that you can bounce ideas off and discuss problems
• Be yourself – it is important to be yourself in your engagements and interactions with peers, competitors and clients
• Trust – trust is paramount to building rapport and winning work
• Winding-down – find something you love to do outside work (or in Mark’s case more work!)

Thank you to Johnson Winter & Slattery for hosting the event.