WA Insolvency Forum Bankers and Financiers Panel

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1 WA Insolvency Forum Bankers and Financiers Panel Andrew Clarke NAB Andrew has been involved with Commercial Banking for over 25 years, concentrating on relationship banking and managing sales teams within the agribusiness and commercial sectors throughout Western Australia. This has provided extensive exposure to all aspects of agriculture, including extensive broad acre cropping and livestock, intensive livestock production, horticulture, tropical agriculture, viticulture, fishing, import & export of rural commodities and further processing. Holding senior positions within NAB agribusiness over a period of 21 years (in particular the last eight as leader of the sales team) has provided the opportunity to positively influence and mould both the nature of the WA team and the NAB s WA agribusiness portfolio to ensure that NAB is a significant and respected force within the WA finance industry. Andrew was raised on a family farm in the Eastern wheatbelt of WA where exposure to the vagrancies of weather created both a healthy respect and understanding primary production and risk. Peter Cutler Westpac A native of WA, Peter began his career with Westpac s corporate banking unit in Perth in He also spent time with the bank in Taipei and Sydney before relocating to Brisbane in 1996 to take up a role as an analyst with Fitch Ratings, focusing on Asian banks through the Asian financial crisis of the

2 late 1990s. Moving to Hong Kong with Fitch in 1999, Peter later joined Goldman Sachs Asia in 2001, also based in Hong Kong, in a credit and debt capital markets capacity, before transferring to London in a similar role with Goldman Sachs in In 2006, he joined Deutsche Bank in Singapore as head of credit for the bank s corporate and commercial banking businesses in Asia, excluding Australia and Japan, before returning home to Perth in Peter re-joined Westpac in July 2012 as chief credit officer for WA. Peter has an undergraduate degree in economics from Murdoch University and masters of applied finance from Macquarie University in Sydney. Jack Gregson Principal Gregsons Auctioneers & Valuers Jonathan Gregson has been the principal at Gregsons Auctioneers & Valuers since 1994 and has been working in the Auctioneering & Valuation business since he was 18 in Beaufort St, Perth. The Gregsons family business has been in operation in WA since 1929 with Jon and his son now being the 3th & 4th generation running the business with a new focus on Industrial Plant & Equipment valuation and disposal. Jon has a diverse range of experience in the WA market across many industries including Mining and Civil Construction, Transport, Steel Fabrication, Plant & Equipment, Sheet Metal Manufacturing, Materials and Handling. Gregsons clients span a multitude of some of WA s largest private companies, insolvency firms and banking institutions and are well recognised for their market knowledge, equipment understanding and timely presentation of reports. Jon and his team are all members of the American Society of Appraisers and the firm has a national affiliation with the Dominion Group allowing them to conduct national appointments across Australia. Peter Langham Chief Executive Officer Scottish Pacific Deputy Chairman Debtors Invoice Finance Association Australia and New Zealand

3 Peter Langham trained as an accountant, but has been involved in debtor finance since Initially working in the UK, Peter transferred to Australia in 1993 to develop the Western Australian business of Bank of Scotland subsidiary, Scottish Pacific. After a short spell at the Westpac Group, Peter founded Benchmark Debtor Finance in In 2002, to support national expansion, venture capital was added to initial shareholder base of Perth accountants, lawyers and investors. Late in 2005, Benchmark was acquired by a private joint venture. Peter, along with other senior management remained investors and in September 2007 the shareholders acquired the factoring business of Scottish Pacific, then owned by St George Bank. At this point, Peter moved from Perth to Sydney. The now merged Scottish Pacific Benchmark was sold in May 2010 to Lazard Private Equity and dropped the Benchmark name. In July 2013, Lazard sold Scottish Pacific to Next Capital for circa $100m, where Peter and senior management remain shareholders. Scottish Pacific is the largest specialist provider of debtor finance (including invoice discounting and factoring) and has now expanded its market reach through new divisions, FactorONE and Trade Finance. They have operating centres across Australia and New Zealand, an office and staff in China to handle trade finance, have over 130 staff, 900 clients and handle over $4billion of sales each year. Transaction size ranges from $50,000 to $25m. Steven James Waterman BEc, Head of Asset Restructuring, Loans Administration Unit for Westpac & St. George Bank in W.A. Steve is Head of Asset Restructuring, Loans Administration Unit for both Westpac & St. George Bank in Western Australia and has over 25 years experience in the finance industry having joined Westpac as an Economics graduate back in 1988 and has gained significant finance experience through a career in a wide range of finance roles within Westpac Group, as well as AWB (Australian Wheat Board) and Capricorn Society Ltd. After almost 15 years with Westpac, Steve moved to a senior position with AWB Financial Service s Harvest Finance operations, before the role came to an end along with the demise of AWB s monopoly status in wheat exports.

4 Steve moved on to head up lending services at Capricorn Society, a key partner in the automotive industry that operates across Australia, New Zealand & South Africa. In the immediate post GFC days, this provided 2 years of a wide range of challenges associated establishing and managing a new finance and broking business that continues today, before being drawn back to the Westpac Group. Having returned to Westpac almost three years ago to manage workouts of property exposures for St. George Bank & Westpac institutional bank, Steve has early this year been promoted to the current role as Head of Loans Management Unit / Asset Restructuring for Westpac Group in WA. Joseph Abberton BCom, LLB Partner, Lavan Legal Before joining Lavan Legal, Joe worked for the former PPB partnership (now McGrathNicol) where he attained his CA qualifications and was involved in a wide range of insolvency appointments. Joe is also a member of the WA Committee of the Insolvency Practitioners Association. Since joining Lavan Legal, Joe has specialised in insolvency and reconstruction and has worked primarily in advising insolvency practitioners across all aspects of receiverships, liquidations and administrations, including, the Firepower liquidation, receivership of the Mead Group and the re-structure of the Croesus Group. Joe has also specialised in corporate litigation where he has provided advice to various listed companies and clients in relation to the collapse of Opes Prime and Lift Capital, and been involved in the Sons of Gwalia litigation. His clients include Golden West Resources Ltd, IMF Ltd, St George Bank Ltd, Pitcher Partners, PricewaterhouseCoopers, McGrathNicol, PPB, Deloitte, RSM Bird Cameron and KordaMentha. Cliff Rocke Partner, KordaMentha Cliff Rocke is managing Partner of KordaMentha WA and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He has over 23 years experience in Corporate Recovery and Insolvency, Personal Insolvency, Financial

5 Investigations and Corporate Restructuring. He has held senior positions including Partner in leading boutique corporate restructuring practices in Western Australia and has held a senior position in one of the big 4 banks in the risk area. In practice Cliff has completed a number of both informal assignments and formal assignments. Cliff s clients include leading financial institutions, accountants, credit managers and lawyers. Cliff is a Member of Institute of Chartered Accountants; Registered and Official (Court ) Liquidator; Member of Insolvency Practitioners Association; Member of Australian Institute of Company Directors and is involved in the Youth Focus Charity.