Alvarez & Marsal bolsters UK corporate finance practice with suite of senior hires
Global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) has accelerated the expansion of its corporate finance in the UK practice with seven senior hires. Al-Munther Sultan has been appointed as a MD of healthcare &life sciences in A&M’s corporate finance division. Claire Edwards, Sarah Bannister, Patrick Simpson and James Gaffney join as directors, while Sarah Bowen and Hannah Halstead join as associate directors.
Alvarez & Marsal’s corporate finance division has grown rapidly since the start of the year across the firm’s Manchester and London offices. The seven hires into the team follow on from the recent appointments of Richard Lee and Jo Sheerin in August.
Al-Munther Sultan joins from KPMG where he held a senior position in its M&A practice for the past six years. Prior to this he worked in other M&A advisory firms and in leveraged finance for an international bank. He has spent over 15 years advising founder-owners, private equity and corporates on a wide range of M&A services, including business exits, fund raising/ partial company exits and acquisition support.
Claire Edwards joins from KPMG as a director in healthcare and life sciences team, based in the UK. Claire has over 17 years’ experience specialising in corporate finance, providing advice to business owners, management teams and private equity investors on a range of mid-market transactions including business disposals, acquisitions and private equity investment.
Sarah Bannister joins Alvarez & Marsal as a director with a national focus on travel, hospitality and leisure, bringing with her a wealth of experience and unique perspective developed through her nine years working within KPMG’s corporate finance team on high profile transactions across the North and senior in-house corporate development roles at Village Hotels and Sykes Holiday Cottages. In 2019 Sarah was awarded North West Emerging Dealmaker of the Year.
Patrick Simpson also joins with over 10 years’ experience advising mid-market businesses in the region. Completing a wide range of buy and sell-side engagements working with owner manager and private equity clients, primarily across the business and tech enabled services sector. Patrick also has significant international experience, having spent time working in KPMG’s US practice where he advised on several private equity and corporate transactions.
The third director joining A&M is James Gaffney. He joins with over a decade of experience within KPMG, having joined the corporate finance team in 2016. James has a national focus on energy and sustainability services, having worked on a number of the highest profile deals in the sector. James was nominated for the North West Emerging Dealmaker of the year in 2021.
A&M has also hired Sarah Bowen and Hannah Halstead as associate directors. Both join from KPMG. Sarah specialises in providing buy-side and sell-side deal advisory services to founder owned business in the mid-market. Sarah was shortlisted for Young Finance Professional of the year at the Insider North West Young Professional Awards this year.
Hannah’s background is in working with privately owned and private equity-backed businesses across a variety of sectors with both sell side and extensive buy side experience. Her recent deal experience includes advising Cocogreen on its investment from Circularity Capital and Healthpoint on its investment from Dayes BV, both of which were nominated for Deal of the Year in their respective categories in 2022.
Jo Sheerin, senior director at Alvarez & Marsal, said: “These appointments are a significant moment for Alvarez & Marsal’s corporate finance team as we continue to strengthen our offering to businesses. We continue to attract top talent who share our values of leadership, action, and results. The seven new arrivals are a welcome addition to our team, and we are confident that they will be able to draw on their varied experiences to help us achieve our goals for clients.”
