Welcome to our new board members

The Corporate Finance Faculty approved new board appointments at the board meeting following the AGM. Alistair Brew, head of investment operations at BGF and board member since 2018, has taken over as chair of the faculty from Mo Merali, who will continue as a board member. And following the retirement of long-serving board members, the faculty has recruited senior members of advisory and investment firms as replacements.

Six have joined the Corporate Finance Faculty board:

• Jo Davenport (1), a London-based corporate finance transaction services partner at BDO;
• John Flint (2), chief executive of the UK Infrastructure Bank and former group CEO of HSBC;
• Nicola Longfield (3), global deal advisory consumer and retail lead at KPMG International and transactions advisory services lead in the UK;
• Tandeep Minhas (4), partner at Taylor Wessing, specialising in corporate finance and M&A, and former member of the faculty’s technical committee;
• James Pincus (5), PwC partner, who heads up the firm’s infrastructure M&A team; and
• Louis Taylor (6), CEO of the British Business Bank.

ICAEW head of corporate finance David Petrie said: “I would like to personally welcome the new board members and would also like to thank our retiring members for the help they have given to the faculty over the years. Our board members are volunteers and we are blessed to have such big hitters. We will benefit from having a board that continues to represent the broad range of activities the faculty covers.

“Alistair has brought the insight of an experienced investor to our board and will be a tremendous chair. He takes over from Mo, who has worked incredibly hard on behalf of the faculty and its members as chair for five years.” 

In September there will be two more joining the board:

• Giles Distin (7), corporate finance partner at Addleshaw Goddard; and
• Keeley Woodley (8), head of UK corporate finance advisory at Grant Thornton.

Two board members have extended their term as board members:

• Diane Craig, head of capital markets at RSM; and
• Mo Merali, former chair of the Corporate Finance Faculty and head of private equity at Grant Thornton.

Petrie thanked the retiring board members for all their efforts on behalf of the faculty and its members over many years: David Collins, partner and head of transaction services at Charles Russell Speechlys; Chris Hurley, co-founding partner at Dealspan; PwC lead advisory partner, Duncan Skailes; and Selina Sagayam, Gibson Dunn corporate partner.

The other board members are:

• Deloitte partners Yvette Allen (chair of the faculty’s technical committee) and Fenton Burgin;
• John Garner, managing partner and head of new business at LDC;
• Chris Hunt, head of M&A at Rentokil Initial;
• Chris Lowe, EY capital and debt advisory partner;
• Jon Moulton, chair of the Better Capital fund vehicles;
• John Rugman, Evelyn Partners head of advisory;
• Meera Shah, Buzzacott corporate finance director;
• Chris Watt, managing partner at ECI Partners; and
• Jonathan Boyers, former head of corporate finance at KPMG.

Corporate Finance Faculty AGM – 16 May

The Corporate Finance Faculty held its annual general meeting at Chartered Accountants’ Hall. Mo Merali, who stepped down as chairman after five years in the role, was presented with an armada dish on behalf of members by ICAEW head of corporate finance, David Petrie (below). He is succeeded by Alistair Brew of the BGF.

“I am delighted to report that my successor will find the faculty in great shape,” said Merali. “It continues to grow and develop the nature and extent of its work and services on behalf of all its members, including in 2023 developing a digital, interactive version of its popular flagship publication, Corporate Financier.

“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the faculty’s board, the technical committee, chaired by Yvette Allen; the Middle East Panel, chaired by Richard Dingle and supported by ICAEW’s staff in Dubai; and the editorial panel of Corporate Financier magazine. And finally, I would like to extend my personal thanks to the staff of the faculty, led by David Petrie and including Katerina Joannou, Shaun Beaney – who was with us until May 2022 – Sam Gallagher, Helen Jones, Debbie O’Neill and Marc Mullen.”

Merali and Petrie also set out the faculty’s future plans. There will be two new guidelines on cyber security in M&A and earnouts published this year. The faculty will continue to contribute to policy development that will affect member firms and Petrie will continue to represent ICAEW on the government’s Business Finance Council in 2023.

UNW joins faculty

North East independent advisory firm UNW has become the latest member firm of the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UNW’s corporate finance business advises clients both across the North East of England and nationally.

Three partners lead UNW’s 15-strong team.

Chris Wilson (1) is partner and head of corporate finance. Previously, he led KPMG’s M&A service in the east of England, and was based in Cambridge. He trained as an ACA with KPMG, before moving into corporate finance. He worked for KPMG in Leeds, London and Newcastle upon Tyne, where he is originally from.

Nick Broadhead (2) is a partner, who joined from KPMG in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he trained as an ACA before joining the corporate finance team. He advises across a broad range of sectors, but specialises in private equity transactions.

Paul Mankin (3) is partner and chair of corporate finance. He joined from PwC, where he had a 38-year career, having trained as an ACA with the firm, before moving into corporate finance, and ultimately becoming head of corporate finance for PwC in the North East and Yorkshire.

UNW is investing heavily in the corporate finance team at present. Other recent appointments include Chris Newman, who joins as a manager having initially qualified at PwC followed by five years at NVM Private Equity, and Jonathan Partridge, who has joined as an executive following four years at KPMG.

The firm has a significant track record, both regionally and nationally, of advising clients on M&A, finance-raising, due diligence and grant support and subsidies. Its clients are across all sectors, with much of the firm’s recent activity being concentrated in the technology, tech-enabled business services and industrials sectors. In addition, it engages in market-leading work on disposals in the dental sector.

Activity in the last year has included advising:

• the shareholders of Cleveland Containers on a minority investment by LDC;
• energy sector engineering group Quanta EPC on a private equity investment from Foresight;
• LDC on its investment in leading employee engagement and internal communications consultancy Scarlettabbott; and
• materials technology group Key-Tech International on the transfer of the founder’s shares to an employee ownership trust (EOT).

On joining the faculty Chris Wilson said: “Although we are proud to be an independent firm, it’s equally important for us to be part of a larger professional network, giving us opportunities to connect and share ideas with the wider corporate finance community nationally, and even globally.

“We have ambitious plans to grow our corporate finance business across all revenue streams and that will, of course, require investment in talent. We already have an excellent platform from which to build with quality, highly capable people at all levels, but we are always actively looking to speak to anyone who thinks they can add value to our business and might be interested in exploring what we have to offer.”

And on the current dealmaking climate, he added: “The transaction environment is undoubtedly more challenging now than it has been in recent years – with political and macroeconomic volatility, a high-inflation environment and shocks in the banking system, among other things, all contributing to a global reduction in deal volumes and values.

“We nevertheless remain optimistic. We continue to see high numbers of owners considering an exit, corporates looking to acquire, private equity seeking to deploy capital and the debt markets pricing in future interest rate reductions, so we are looking forward to an active deals market for the rest of 2023 and into 2024.”

CPD and corporate finance

The ICAEW Council has approved the principles of a new continuing professional development (CPD) policy, which will take effect in November 2023, for the 2023/2024 CPD year.

The new policy introduces a requirement for a minimum number of hours. The overarching principles of the existing CPD policy will remain – that members must consider their development needs, create an action plan, carry out their plan, evaluate its effectiveness and, at the end of the year, declare that they have complied, providing evidence of compliance if requested.

From November 2023, members (other than those who are exempt) must carry out a minimum number of CPD hours per year, including a minimum number of ‘verifiable’ hours, with the number of hours varying depending on the role.

The definition of verifiable CPD is broad, and includes a range of activities such as attending workshops and carrying out technical research.

The majority of ICAEW members working in corporate finance advisory will find themselves in CPD Category 2, defined as “those working within corporate finance teams providing advice to individuals, public sector bodies or businesses”. They will be required to do 30 hours of CPD per year, 20 of which will need to be verifiable. Investment principals will most likely find themselves in CPD Category 3, working outside of practice, and will be required to do 20 hours of CPD per year, five of which would need to be verifiable.

Find out more about the new CPD policy.