Duff & Phelps promotes five consultants in restructuring unit

Simon Shipperlee, Rob Goodhew, Mike Lennon, Mike Parsons and Martin Gray have been promoted to the role of Director at Duff & Phelps. The news comes as the firm looks to build its global restructuring team amid heightened demand.

Consulting firm Duff & Phelps is a global provider of advisory services that aims to help clients protect, restore and maintain the value of their company; as such, the firm is often called upon to perform corporate rescue work. While the consulting firm is also responding to rising demand in its compliance offering, restructuring work takes up the lion’s share of the headlines concerning Duff & Phelps, particularly as the number of insolvencies in the UK has exploded since 2016.

In that context, the firm has worked to bolster its team of experts significantly at the start of 2019. Earlier in the year, it hired Andy Murray as a new Managing Director for its compliance and regulatory practice. Close to that, the firm also appointed Ben Collett as a new Managing Director in its restructuring practice. This was followed by the arrival of Tyrone Courtman, who was hired to focus on restructuring advisory services for corporate clients based in the East Midlands.

Earlier in 2019, the firm also announced it was expanding its global restructuring team. The team today includes over 200 restructuring and insolvency professionals in the US, the UK, Ireland, Spain and Hong Kong, among others. As part of this growth, Duff & Phelps has promoted five existing managers within its UK restructuring advisory practice to the role of Director, further strengthening the UK team. Simon Shipperlee, Rob Goodhew, Mike Lennon, Mike Parsons and Martin Gray have been promoted, with immediate effect.

Simon Shipperlee has over 17 years of experience in corporate restructuring advisory and formal insolvency work. Prior to joining Duff & Phelps, he worked at Grant Thornton where he gained experience in formal insolvencies, fraud investigation and independent business reviews.

Rob Goodhew has accrued more than 15 years of experience working in corporate advisory, restructuring and insolvency. He has also specialised in complex investigation and asset recovery work on behalf of insolvent companies against third parties to recover funds owed to funders and creditors. Before joining Duff & Phelps, he worked at a boutique accountancy practice where he was responsible for preparing statutory accounts.

Mike Lennon is based in the Manchester office. He has over 11 years of experience in corporate restructuring and advisory, having worked on a number of high-profile assignments in the retail sector, including Jacques Vert and BHS. He also assists the purchasers of retail businesses through the full transaction cycle.

Mike Parsons is also located in Duff & Phelps’ Manchester office. He has more than 12 years of experience in restructuring, and leads Duff & Phelps’ Tax Arrears Solutions service line. Together with his team Parsons has successfully negotiated over 500 repayment arrangements with HM Revenue and Customs since 2008. Before then, he worked for the corporate restructuring division of Kroll.

Martin Gray is the last of the Director promotions, and is also based in Duff & Phelps’ Manchester office. He has more than nine years of experience in the financial services sector. Before arriving at Duff & Phelps, he spent six years with two of the UK’s major clearing banks as a senior relationship manager within their corporate and restructuring departments, during which he managed a portfolio of complex clients with total debt in excess of £300 million, across both bi-lateral and syndicated deals.

David Whitehouse, the Head of Duff & Phelps’ UK restructuring advisory wing, said, “Duff & Phelps’ restructuring team is rapidly growing and going from strength to strength across the world… We currently have a particularly turbulent market in the UK, with factors such as the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the early indications of a global economic downturn, which are causing businesses to face difficulties. Having access to a robust team of market specialists enables us to provide the expertise affected businesses require to see them through challenging times.”