Joshua Taylor and Steffi Thio join A&M's Restructuring arm

Facing growing demand for restructuring services amid the Covid-19-induced downturn, Alvarez & Marsal has expanded its Restructuring and Turnaround practice in Southeast Asia with the hire of seniors Joshua Taylor and Steffi Thio. 

Appointed as Managing Director and Senior Director, respectively, Joshua Taylor and Steffi Thio will be at the helm of the firm’s Singapore office. “We are thrilled to welcome Joshua and Steffi to mark our first senior hires in the Singapore office,” said Ron Thompson, Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal in Asia and Head of the regional Restructuring and Turnaround wing.

Alvarez & Marsal already has a senior team of restructuring experts in its mainland China and Hong Kong offices, and the three hubs will going forward “work together as one team,” said Thompson, as the firm seeks to offer an multi-country services combined with local on the ground delivery.

One of the globe’s top restucturing consulting firms according to Consultancy.org, Alvarez & Marsal is in the eyes of Thompson “uniquely positioned to support our clients across the region.” The global consultancy also has Asian offices in India (Mumbai and New Delhi – this team recently won a global award for its work) and Korea (Seoul).

Taylor brings expertise in insolvency appointments and debt restructuring in Asia and Oceania to the firm. Prior to joining Alvarez & Marsal, he spent a decade at rival FTI Consulting, latterly as a Senior Managing Director in Singapore, where he assisted in the development of the Southeast Asia practice and supported major clients, including international financing institutions, private equity, bondholders, law firms and distressed funds. 

Earlier in his career, Taylor worked for Big Four firm Deloitte in Australia and the Cayman Islands. 

Thio also brings over two decades of experience in building and managing performing and non-performing credit portfolios for banks and financial institutions in Asia. Before joining Alvarez & Marsal, she held credit risk management roles at Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC. She also worked for Dianrong, an online marketplace lending in China, and b2b platform Serai, where she was Head of Credit and Risk.

Commenting on their decision to join the consulting firm, the two consultants both pointed at Alvarez & Marsal’s “leading reputation in the corporate restructuring and turnaround space,” and (for them) appealing growth outlook in anticipation of an increased flow of corporate distress situations in the coming period.

Against a similar Covid-19-driven backdrop, Alvarez & Marsal recently launched Restructuring practices in Norway and Switzerland.  

Some of the major publicly known turnaround cases A&M is currently working on includes NMC Health in the Middle East, Pret A Manger in the UK, Virgin Atlantic in Europe, and a string of high-profile cases in home market the US.