Leading business and finance adviser Grant Thornton is expanding on its advisory expertise with the appointment of Eddie Williams as partner to lead the firm’s restructuring team in the Midlands.
Before joining Grant Thornton, Williams spent 18 years working in the region, most recently leading PwC’s restructuring team in the East Midlands.
Experienced in providing advisory, accelerated sales contingency planning and insolvency services to distressed companies and their funders, he has led a number of business turnarounds and insolvency appointments in a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, automotive, retail, construction, services and recycling
In the last three years, Williams has led the administration and sale of both camera retailer Jessops and WR Refrigeration. Alongside these assignments, he has advised a wide number of mid-market cases around the Midlands including most recently the insolvency and sale of a recycling centre in north Nottingham.
Williams said: “I am pleased to be joining an organisation with a proven track record of delivering for its clients within the region and strong ambitions for growth, particularly within advisory services. As part of Grant Thornton’s restructuring team within the UK of over 600 people and a corporate finance team leading the way in the mid- market, I believe we are ideally placed to provide the expertise and sector insight that our clients expect whilst maintaining the personal relationships that are key to working effectively in restructuring advisory services within the Midlands.
“As the economy grows, the strategic decisions facing many local businesses and their management teams such as funding, expansion, sale, restructuring or exit are likely to come into focus. This will create challenges that we are well placed to support as the restructuring team has done on recent assignments such as Eco Plastics, Specialist Computer Bookshops and John Cheatle Group.”
Geoff Davies, head of Grant Thornton’s Advisory business in the Midlands, said: “Eddie’s arrival adds further depth to our advisory services to clients. His track record demonstrates complementary skills to those of Raj Mittal and the wider restructuring team and I am looking forward very much to working with him.”
Chris Frostwick, partner and practice leader of Grant Thornton in Leicester, added: “Eddie’s breadth of expertise will help deliver growth to our already strong foothold in the mid-market as we continue to ramp up to meet the demand arising from increasing economic confidence.”
Grant Thornton’s Leicester office has approximately 120 staff providing business and financial advice across Corporate and Personal Tax, audit and assurance, employer solutions, corporate finance, and sustainability, to organisations across the East Midlands.
