Press Release

AlixPartners adds top creditor and debtor advisory experts to growing UK restructuring practice

 

NEW YORK (August 11, 2021) - AlixPartners, the global consulting firm, today announced that it is expanding its UK Turnaround and Restructuring Services practice, with the addition of four highly respected creditor and debtor advisory experts. Lee Watson, Jessica Clayton, and Joe O’Connor join the firm from EY as Managing Directors in the AlixPartners London office, bringing with them extensive experience in navigating highly complex financial restructuring transactions. Esben Christensen, an existing AlixPartners Managing Director, will be joining the practice in the UK from the firm’s US practice, bringing additional whole company turnaround and restructuring experience from AlixPartners’ largest market.

Lee Watson and Jessica Clayton specialize in creditor advisory work, with over four decades of experience between them of advising lenders through multi-stakeholder restructuring situations in the plc. and leveraged lending spaces, spanning the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They are highly experienced in formulating and implementing in- and out-of-court financial restructuring programmes and have worked across a wide range of industries. These industries include support services, construction, real estate, banking and capital markets, telecommunications, power and utilities, oil and gas, consumer products, and retail, with Jessica having previously led EY’s UK retail transactions practice.

Joe O’Connor is a widely recognized financial restructuring adviser and insolvency practitioner, with over 20 years of experience in advising corporates, lenders, shareholders, and other stakeholders on financial restructuring, options analysis, enforcement planning, and insolvency. He has worked on complex restructuring situations across a wide range of global industries and created and led the life sciences and healthcare restructuring team at EY. Joe is an elected council member of R3, the leading professional trade body for the UK’s restructuring and insolvency sector.

Esben Christensen brings an additional global perspective to the AlixPartners UK Turnaround and Restructuring Services practice from his work across Asia, Europe, and South America. With almost two decades of experience in whole company turnarounds, interim management, restructurings, and complex operational improvement programs, his expertise is primarily in debtor and company-side advisory work.

“Lee, Jessica, Joe, and Esben bring substantial creditor and debtor advisory expertise to our thriving UK practice, building on our long history of success in the restructuring industry. The addition of deep creditor advisory experience, in particular, confirms our ability to offer market-leading advice in the UK across the entire restructuring spectrum,” said Simon Freakley, CEO of AlixPartners. “Our clients will benefit tremendously from this enhanced suite of expertise as they continue to navigate the disruptive effects of the pandemic on their businesses.”

These senior appointments add further momentum to the growth of the financial restructuring team in the UK, following the arrival of Alex Czerniewski and Richard Harrison who joined AlixPartners from EY as Directors in June 2021.

The addition of these six senior professionals further enhances the UK practice’s experience in advising creditor groups and companies in stressed and distressed situations.

 

About AlixPartners

AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses successfully address their most complex and critical challenges. Our clients include companies, corporate boards, law firms, investment banks, private equity firms, and others. Founded in 1981, AlixPartners is headquartered in New York and has offices in more than 20 cities around the world. For more information, visit www.alixpartners.com.

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Ed Canaday

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Robin Knight

Partner, London

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Senior Vice President, London