Eight Advisory hires former EY Senior Partner Steve Taylor

Rapidly growing Eight Advisory has hired a former Senior Partner of EY to boost its valuations practice in the UK. Steve Taylor arrives as a Partner, and will lead the practice as Eight Advisory works to expand its UK footprint.

Established by eight former Partners of the Big Four and Arthur Andersen, Eight Advisory was set up in France in 2009 to address a growing demand from businesses for dedicated financial and operational advice around transactions, restructuring and business transformation decisions. Since its creation by Pascal Raidron, Eric Demuyt, Cédric Colaert, Justin Welstead, Vincent Blot, Lionnel Gérard, Stéphane Vanbergue and Katia Wagner, the firm has grown to over 30 partners and 300 staff, who are housed in offices in Paris, Lyon, Nantes, Mumbai and London.

Headed in the UK by founding partner Justin Welstead, and Partner Ben Norris, the French-origin consultancy saw significant growth in UK activity in particular over 2017, and is consequently extending its presence in the UK. In order to meet increasing demand from the firm’s growing client base, Eight Advisory has had to recruit a number of additional due diligence specialists. This has seen its London team grow to a total of 20 at the beginning of 2018, and caused the firm to relocate to a new location at the turn of the year. Eight Advisory established its first UK office in Dover Street, Mayfair in 2016, but will henceforth occupy a recently redeveloped contemporary office building at 48 Pall Mall.Now, as the financial and operational consultancy looks to live up to heightened demand, and continue its growth trajectory, Eight Advisory has hired former EY Senior Partner, Steve Taylor, to expand its valuation practice in the UK. Taylor, who arrives as a Partner and Head of the UK Valuations division at Eight Advisory, joins an established European team of 30 full time specialists, as the firm looks to expand its UK footprint. He will facilitate this by providing valuation expertise on services including transactional, restructurings, purchase price allocation, fiscal and expert witness.

Having spent more than 28 years with the Big Four firm before arriving at Eight Advisory, Taylor joins with extensive experience in valuations work, as well as in advising governments, private equity firms, lawyers and corporates. As the Senior Valuation Partner at EY, he specialised in complex and contentious valuation matters, often for the Courts, in terms of businesses, shares, debt, options and intellectual property. Following his almost three decades at EY, Taylor spent a short spell as Chief Financial Officer at telecommunications agency 4Com, where he worked to developing a group strategy at the firm, alongside debt fundraising, operational restructuring, cyber security, and managing its property portfolio. Taylor is also a Chartered Accountant and a Member of the Expert Witness Institute, and brings extensive knowledge in the industrial products, consumer products and financial services to his new role.

Justin Welstead, Managing Partner of Eight Advisory UK said of the new hiring, “We are thrilled to be joined by Steve who is well-known and respected in the industry. His knowledge of the industrial and consumer products and financial services will strengthen our existing offering and is further evidence of Eight Advisory’s continued growth in the UK.”

Steve Taylor himself added, “I’m delighted to be at Eight Advisory. The firm is growing from strength to strength and I am excited to further its success and to be part of its ambitious growth trajectory in the UK.”