Financial advisory business Interpath appoints five directors

Financial advisory specialist Interpath Advisory has appointed five new directors across its transactions and restructuring practices.

In its first full-year promotion round since going independent in May last year, Interpath Advisory has promoted 51 company members across the business, including four to director level: Natasha Harbinson, Alex Watkins, Sam Birchall and Nick Burberry.

The promotion round was “one of the largest in our business’ 50 year history,” said Blair Nimmo, chief executive of Interpath Advisory, on the back of a strong year of growth – seeing firm-wide headcount grow by 30 to 580 professionals.

Natasha Harbinson joined Interpath’s National Markets team two and a half years ago from Santander, where she worked in a number of roles including in the restructuring team and as Head of Collections and Recoveries for the bank’s UK mortgage portfolio.

Since joining Interpath Advisory, Harbinson has worked with and led teams on a range of advisory and insolvency engagements including the high-profile Caffe Nero company voluntary arrangement and its successfully defended challenge.

Alex Watkins has been part of the team for 17 years, joining the firm as a graduate. During this time he undertook a secondment to the Cayman Islands where he first began to work on engagements for financial services institutions, including managing the liquidation of two $1.6 billion sub-prime mortgage funds managed by Bear Stearns.

Watkins now leads the consumer finance sector for Interpath Advisory, and going forward, he will focus on specialist financial services projects and international assignments.

Sam Birchall similarly joined the firm shortly after his graduation. He has a broad range of restructuring experience across the mid-market, with a particular focus on Early Options and Special Situations M&A.

Looking ahead, Birchall will continue to maintain and develop the firm’s relationships with special situation funds, and support the growth ambitions of the Corporate Finance practice.

Nick Burberry has been with the business for over 11 years, starting as a graduate in KPMG’s Audit practice before joining Interpath Advisory’s Special Situations Group, where he has worked on and led some of the firm’s largest transformation projects across both the private and public sector.

Burberry specialises in value creation and cost proposition propositions, with a focus on clients in the industrials sector.

Rob Allard has meanwhile joined the firm externally, he has been recruited from YM&U Group. Appointed a director and Head of Operational Due Diligence in the Transaction Services team, he will focus on establishing and building out the operational due diligence service line.

Prior to YM&U Group (where Allard was COO), he spent over a decade at Big Four firm KPMG as part of the firm’s Strategy Group, and latterly Deal Advisory practice.