Becky is a licensed insolvency practitioner and chartered accountant with over 25 years of experience advising businesses in the Midlands and London. She helps owner-managed businesses and medium-sized companies across a wide range of sectors, with a particular specialism in healthcare providers, retail, automotive/aerospace, engineering and construction-related trades. Becky regularly advises on solvent restructuring and group rationalisation.

Tom is a chartered accountant and Licensed Insolvency Practitioner who co-founded BABR in 2007. The firm provides business recovery, insolvency, commercial finance and debt recovery solutions to SMEs, funders and fellow professional advisers. With over 25 years’ experience, Tom works closely with businesses, their advisers and key stakeholders to deliver practical recovery and insolvency solutions.

Matt Atkinson is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal. Prior to joining A&M, Matt was the Interim CFO at the University of Nottingham (a Russell Group university) and at Middlesex University. Matt also worked with universities as an independent adviser to funders, as Chief Restructuring Officer and as a council member. Between 2016 and 2022 Matt was a senior civil servant in the Department for Education overseeing an annual spend of £62bn and facilitating and funding the merger and restructurings of over 40 further education colleges. Prior to joining the civil service, Matt was at PWC for 12 years in the Business Recovery Services team where he qualified as an accountant and insolvency practitioner. Matt has a unique set of experiences highly relevant to the challenges universities face and can leverage the deep situational and specialist expertise in A&M where is leading and growing the A&M offer to education providers and funders

(Lord) Gavin Barwell acts as a Senior Advisor to PwC on UK politics and geopolitics. As Downing Street Chief of Staff during the last two years of Theresa May's premiership, Gavin was at the heart of government during one of the most turbulent periods in British political history. He has held a number of other roles during his political career including Chief Operating Officer of the Conservative Party, MP for Central Croydon, senior government whip, Minister of Housing and Minister for London. He shares distinctive and highly relevant insights into political and geopolitical risks and opportunities that boards and executives should be considering, including sector specific challenges and opportunities.

Owen Bourne is a Senior Associate in the Restructuring and Insolvency team at PwC in Manchester. He joined PwC in 2021 through the firm’s School and College Leaver programme directly after completing his studies, qualifying as an ACA with ICAEW while working in the team. In his role, Owen works on a range of corporate restructuring and insolvency engagements across various sectors. Originally from Stoke-on-Trent and educated in the state school system, Owen is passionate about improving socio-economic diversity and access to careers in professional services. He has previously supported internal discussions and initiatives focused on socio-economic inclusion and alternative pathways into the profession.

Immie Carr was part of the founding team of The 93% Club in 2020, a charity dedicated to transforming what it means to be state-educated in the UK. Over the last six years she has built a national community comprising 45,000 state-educated students across 65 university branches and 3,000 professionals spanning over 50 industries. Immie speaks from the intersection of lived experience and strategic social impact leadership, bringing the voice of the state-educated majority to national conversations about social mobility and opportunity. Drawing on her experience building internal networks and initiatives for partners across the financial services sector and beyond, she is a passionate advocate for what senior leaders and institutions can do differently - both in opening doors to students entering the industry and in nurturing and retaining the state-educated talent already within it.

Daniel’s aim is to help firms and professionals understand and develop the skill sets that will enable them to thrive in a world shaped by rapidly changing technology. To achieve this, he draws on over thirty years’ experience in a wide range of roles covering finance, management, HR and professional education, gained with blue-chip firms including EY, Goldman Sachs and BPP.

Natasha is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner and has over 12 years of experience advising companies in stress and distress including several years’ experience working lender-side. Natasha supports companies across a broad range of sectors with notable experience in Retail, Leisure and Hospitality. She has undertaken CVA advisory work for Caffe Nero and Harding Brothers Retail and delivered the successful Part 26a Restructuring Plans of IBMG and Outsideclinic. Most recently, Natasha led the accelerated sale process and subsequent insolvency of Claires in the UK and Europe.

Richard is Global Co-Head of Linklaters’ market leading Restructuring and Insolvency practice and specialises in complex, cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters, with a particular focus on situations in regulated sectors. Richard has been advising clients on distressed matters for over 25 years, representing insolvency officeholders, corporate debtors, investors, creditors, governments and regulatory agencies, pension trustees, directors and other stakeholders, including on contingency planning. His most recent experience has spanned a wealth of sectors, including the EV and mobility, energy supply, nuclear, automotive, technology, financial services / financial institutions, consumer, travel, retail, manufacturing and oil and gas sectors. He has particular expertise in distressed M&A acting for both private equity and trade purchasers and insolvency practitioners as sellers.

Maria Koureas-Jones is a Partner at Francis Wilks & Jones, specialising in contentious insolvency and insolvency related litigation. She advises office holders on progressing claims as assets of the estate. Claims include those against directors (and their associates) and third parties (eg, banks and professional advisors). Maria is regularly instructed on complex, high value and cross border matters, and works closely with insolvency practitioners to maximise recoveries for creditors through litigation and strategic enforcement.

Ed is a restructuring and insolvency partner with approximately 30 years’ experience and with significant expertise in financial services. He is one of the Lehman administrators, leads key aspects of the FTX insolvency, worked on the restructuring of Co-op Bank, set up the Russian "bad bank", advised the Moldovan regulator following a significant banking fraud in 2014, dealt with the run-off and residual issues of UKAR (Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock) and has led a number of NPL disposals for large banks across central and eastern Europe.

Mike is a licensed insolvency practitioner working in the Restructuring Services team at Forvis Mazars. He leads the national, contentious investigations, asset tracing and recovery team from their London office. For over 20 years, he has led both corporate restructuring engagement and personal bankruptcies, while gaining invaluable expertise in contentious investigations and asset tracing insolvencies across multi-jurisdictions.