IFT Next

If you are looking to develop your career in turnaround, IFT Next is your professional network, bringing together leading advisory, banking, legal and investment professionals active in the marketplace. IFT Next provides a platform for you to build your own profile and network as you progress both in your career and your relationship with the IFT.

IFT Next is aimed at professionals who have identified turnaround and business support as their long-term career pathway. Typically, these professionals will have established themselves at a management level within turnaround and restructuring and are now looking to build upon their profile and network. The IFT Next events and network is typically suitable for those with the following titles:

Manager, Senior Manager, Director

Senior Solicitor/Relationship Manager/Director, Business Support Manager

IFT Next is also suitable for those taking their first step into independent advisory.

Those who are looking to be promoted to these titles in the near future and IFT Next would benefit this transition.

IFT Next offers:

• A focused community for those developing their career at a senior level in turnaround, whether as an adviser, lawyer, banker or investor
• Events covering business development, market updates and soft skills
• Regular networking
• Pathway to IFT accreditation

IFT Next seminars, workshops and networking events are free of charge.

In order to join the IFT Next distribution list sign up by filling in the form below or to express your interest please send an email to info@the-ift.com.

Meet the IFT Next Committee

Our committee draws on the expertise and insights from across the world of turnaround, with members drawn from the advisory, legal, and banking professions active in the marketplace. We have representatives from each region and together the committee steers and gets involved in organising the IFT Next programme in terms of learning, sharing market knowledge, networking and thought leadership.

London

Rachel Thomas of PwC

Isabel Townsend

Thomas Birt of Macfarlanes

Thomas is an associate in the restructuring and insolvency group at Macfarlanes LLP. He advises on a range of financial transactions, with a focus on restructurings, insolvency and real estate finance. His experience includes consensual debt restructurings and formal insolvency processes, as well as real estate finance and other debt finance transactions. His clients include insolvency practitioners, companies in financial difficulties and their directors and shareholders, banks, corporate trustees, alternative finance providers and corporate borrowers.

Dillon O’Keeffe of FRP

West & Wales

Douglas Cecil of BDO

Doug is a committee member for IFT Next covering the South West region. Doug is a Director in BDO’s Business Restructuring team and is most effective working company-side in stressed circumstances, supporting boards of directors to take a more active approach to managing trading whilst remaining mindful of potential insolvency risks. Prior to joining BDO, in January 2020, he spent ten years developing his advisory and restructuring skills in South West Australia.

In recent years Doug has directed assignments where hundreds of jobs have been saved across a wide range of sectors, including technology, engineering and community interest. Job preservation is always at the forefront of Doug’s thinking, in part due to his prior experience working with industries, and in geographic locations (including Australia), where it can be a painful and extended process to recreate a sustainable employment base. In addition to having a wealth of experience in multiple sectors, Doug’s main passion lies in the technology sector and he has become a key member of BDO’s national TMT sector team. He observes that funding technology business post pandemic has become notably harder as market positioning and prospects are less certain.

Hayley O’Driscoll of  NatWest

Hayley O’Driscoll is co-lead of the IFT Next committee and covers the South West Region. Hayley is an Associate Director at NatWest within the Restructuring team, supporting customers who are experiencing financial distress and navigating a challenging period for their business. Hayley has 14 years banking experience, working in both Restructuring and business development roles, supporting customers operating in healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, leisure and the real estate sector. She is currently undergoing the 10 month IFT academy accreditation.

Midlands

Daniel Timms of Grant Thornton

Daniel is an Associate Director in Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Restructuring team and is a Midlands committee member for IFT Next. He has c.20 years restructuring experience primarily in the midlands mid-market, including employment with a major clearing bank and a boutique lender, and is therefore well placed to assist corporates, lenders, advisers and other intermediaries navigate challenging situations. His expertise includes financial restructuring, contingency planning, restructuring solutions and insolvency services.

Gary Foster of HSBC

Gary is Director in the Large Corporate Special Credit Unit at HSBC Bank supporting customers across all sectors who are experiencing financial distress. He completed the IFT academy accreditation in 2023. Gary is also a passionate coach with a particular focus on professional development and networking skills.

Aino Miles of DLA Piper

Aino Miles is a Senior Associate at DLA Piper, based in Birmingham. Aino’s practice focuses on financial restructuring and insolvency, advising stakeholders on both domestic and cross-border mandates. Aino also regularly works on non-distressed leveraged finance, venture finance and asset based lending transactions.

North East

Khalil Malik of Teneo

Khalil Malik is Co-lead for IFT Next nationally and is a Manager with Teneo’s Financial Advisory in Newcastle. He joined Teneo as part of its purchase of Deloitte’s UK restructuring business. Khalil has experience in working on both insolvency and advisory engagements, focussing on business turnaround and restructuring.

Lizzy Wood of Hill Dickinson

Lizzy is a committee member for IFT Next covering the North East Region. Lizzy is a Legal Director at Hill Dickinson. She acts for corporates, private equity investors, financial institutions and office holders with advice centering on turnaround and directors’ duties, contingency planning and options analysis and delivering both informal and formal restructuring solutions encompassing AMA transactions and CVA’s to ensure the best outcome for stakeholders.  She has extensive experience across the retail and hospitality and leisure sectors.

North West

Claire Marsden of Grant Thornton

Claire is a committee member for IFT Next covering the North West region. Claire is a Manager within the North West Restructuring team for Grant Thornton UK LLP.

Claire is both qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant and CPI, focusing her work on advisory and formal restructuring assignments. Her experience includes delivering work in a number of industries and across the entire business lifecycle from pre-lend and independent business reviews, options assessments and contingency planning as well as formal restructuring solutions.

Sean Leaf of Barclays

Sophie Newcombe of FTI

Sophie is a Senior Consultant in FTI Consulting’s Corporate Finance & Restructuring team. Based in Manchester, Sophie primarily focuses on company side advisory and value creation engagements across a wide range of sectors including hospitality, retail and technology.