New Year Message from Paul Davies TMA UK President

Welcome to 2023!

Well, what a year it has been for the TMA UK. I am delighted to announce that TMA UK won the International Chapter of the Year Award at the TMA Global awards held in Boston at the end of last year. This is great recognition for what we have achieved over the last 12 months.

We have held 30 events around the country attracting nearly 2,500 attendees in total. Our corporate sponsors and individual members have both increased again on last year and we continue to offer a variety of events for our members, whether they are full members, NextGen or our network of women.

We started the year with our ever-popular annual review/preview panel which had to be moved online due to the re-emergence of covid but attracted 300 attendees and the after party kindly sponsored by FRP Advisory and Dechert was successfully held on a rearranged date in May at the RAC Club in London.

Our highly successful conference, chaired by Andrew Pepper was also a complete sell-out and we heard from fantastic and engaging speakers including Touker Suleyman from Dragons Den, Sir Tim Smit of the Eden Project as well as industry experts Peter Jaffe, John Bevan, James Shaw, Tim Smedley and Lisa Wood. Great feedback was received from delegates and we look forward to hosting it again in November 2023.

This year was also our 21st anniversary in the UK and it was great to be able to celebrate this with a black-tie event at the Royal Institute of British Architecture. The casino themed dinner was a fantastic way to celebrate this achievement and we were honoured to be joined by most of the previous TMA UK presidents.

When I was appointed as President back in January 2021, we were just about to enter the long winter covid lockdown and I announced that I would like to enhance our relationship with TMA Global as well as the 54 other chapters across 23 countries globally.

With the enthusiasm and support of the Turnaround Management Association global leadership team during the period, we have built on global connections, and I hope to encourage more of our UK members to attend the global conferences which for 2023 include Las Vegas for the TMA Distressed Investing Conference and San Francisco for the Annual Conference. I’d like to say a huge thank you for the support of Derek Meek, Jane Mitnick, Matthew English, James Van Horn and Scott Stuart for supporting me with building these connections and for the amount of travel they have done to come and support us here in the UK.

I was in Boston, Massachusetts in November for the TMA Annual Conference and the UK was one of 15 different international chapters represented at that event. TMA International chapters now account for around a third of the 10,000 members that TMA has globally and during the last 2 years the TMA has added 8 new international chapters to enable members to continue to improve those cross-border connections.

The year ahead looks like it could be a busy one for the Turnaround industry. High inflation, rising interest rates, raw material costs and difficulties in recruiting staff would all suggest some challenging times ahead for companies and our members are best placed in helping these distressed companies. I hope that the connections that you have met attending TMA UK events will be useful to help with these engagements.

Finally, I would like to say a few thank you’s for the last 12 months:

Firstly, to John Pye & Sons Ltd and Howdens, our Corporate Partners, for their sponsorship and support. Also, to the rest of our corporate sponsors, members and conference sponsors including those firms that have provided all our committees with event sponsorship and venues to host our various events.

Personally, I would like to thank Peter Stevens for his honest and helpful advice and for being a great sounding board for the last 2 years and to Nyree Magill without whom this role would be significantly more difficult.

Thank you to James Cowper Kreston for supporting me in this voluntary role. It would not be possible without the support of my fellow partners within the practice.

Finally, I would like to thank all the voluntary members that contribute to the success of the TMA UK. This includes the TMA Board of Directors, the regional TMA Boards, NextGen committees, the NOW committee and Kelly Darlaston. Without this help, we would not have the successful association that we do have today.

I have agreed to continue for a third year as the UK President and so I hope to see all our members at our various events around the country in 2023. I wish you all a successful year, I expect you will all be busy!

Paul Davies
TMA UK President
& Partner at James Cowper Kreston

More about TMA UK

The TMA is a truly global, member-centric organisation with almost 10,000 members worldwide in 20 countries. We are proud to welcome members from all parts of the turnaround market, including accountants, hedge funds, private equity houses, lawyers, corporate finance specialists, valuers and banks and even unions and members of His Majesty’s government. TMA UK is honoured to be sponsored by over 30 turnaround organisations and thanks go to our UK sponsors.

We offer our members over 30 events annually across the UK. The sharing of insights and the important learning that takes place at such events form a vital part of the TMA project.

EACTP

EACTP is an established, independent organisation within European turnaround and recovery. It's certification process has been recognized by the European States and the European Commission as an independent, high class player providing thorough expertise serving the turnaround community. Find out more here