Wealth management and professional services group Tilney Smith & Williamson has continued to invest in its Bristol office with a significant new appointment and a raft of promotions in its restructuring & recovery and advisory consulting teams.
Experienced restructuring specialist Nigel Fox has joined as a director in a move which significantly widens the range of restructuring services the office is able to offer businesses and individuals in the region. 
Nigel, a chartered accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner, has with more than 30 years’ restructuring and insolvency experience having worked initially at a ‘Big Four’ accountancy firm before spending more than 16 years at RSM in Southampton, where he was a restructuring and insolvency partner.
Meanwhile, Tilney Smith & Williamson partner and turnaround expert Claire Burden, who currently heads the firm’s advisory consulting team in Bristol, is also taking on responsibility for the office’s restructuring & recovery team as part of a ‘turnaround-first’ approach aimed at helping more clients.
Claire is accredited by the Institute for Turnaround and has many years of industry experience at board level, successfully working across sectors on troubleshooting, turnaround and transformation projects.
She also worked for a number of years at a Big Four firm’s restructuring team, advising lenders and corporates and handling insolvencies.
Tilney Smith & Williamson has also announced a number of senior promotions as part of its ongoing investment in its Bristol office.
Matt Kennison, who heads its courtwork client services team – which specifically deals with the firm’s bankruptcy and compulsory liquidation appointments – has been promoted to director while Dave Bridge, who has worked at Tilney Smith & Williamson for seven years and has 12 years’ experience of both corporate and personal insolvency, is now an associate director.
Tilney Smith & Williamson head of restructuring & recovery services and advisory consultancy Greg Palfrey said: “Having worked with Nigel previously, it is great to be working together again with him.
“I am also pleased that Claire has agreed to take on an expanded role in our Bristol office. As can be seen we are continuing to invest in expanding the range of restructuring, recovery and advisory services we can offer to business and personal clients.
“Nigel is a significant senior hire for us and his appointment, and Claire’s new role, recognises our ambition to continue growing in the market.”
Claire Burden said the firm had long advised companies to speak to its restructuring & recovery services teams as early as possible, when there were more options available to help.
“But it can be a difficult ask for clients to speak to people with ‘insolvency practitioner’ on their business cards at the first sign of cash issues or distress,” she added.
“Worse still, if a lender or lawyer has introduced us to the client, it can risk relationships and be counterproductive, at a time when everyone should be working together to fix the problem.
“We have listened to what our clients are telling us and we are changing the way we work to ensure we help as many businesses as we can, as early as possible.”
Tilney Smith & Williamson is set to re-brand to Evelyn Partners this summer.
Pictured, from left: Dave Bridge, Claire Burden and Nigel Fox
