Restructuring Executive Search

Adrian Lawrence — Founder, Exec Capital

Executive search specialist | ICAEW Fellow | Restructuring executive appointments for UK businesses since 2018

Restructuring executive search sits at the intersection of corporate finance, legal process, and operational management — and the executives who operate effectively in this environment have a specific combination of skills that general management experience does not produce. They understand the formal restructuring tools available under UK insolvency law: the restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006, the company voluntary arrangement, the administration moratorium. They can manage the lender relationship and the insolvency practitioner relationship simultaneously. They know how to preserve business value during a formal process — which customers to call, which suppliers to reassure, which people to retain — while the legal structure around them is being changed. Finding these individuals requires direct access to a small and specialised community. To discuss your requirement, call 020 3834 9616.

Exec Capital recruits executives for businesses undergoing formal and informal restructuring across the UK — from chief executives and CFOs managing complex lender negotiations and restructuring plan processes through to operational leaders stabilising businesses during administration and post-administration recovery. We recruit on both permanent and interim bases, with a search process calibrated to the urgency of the restructuring timeline. Every mandate is led personally by Adrian Lawrence FCA.

“We were mid-way through a restructuring plan process and our CFO resigned. The timing could not have been worse — we had a lender steering committee meeting in three weeks and a court hearing six weeks after that. We needed a CFO who had been through a Part 26A restructuring plan, who could walk into the lender meeting with credibility from day one, and who could manage the court process alongside the business simultaneously. Exec Capital placed someone who had done exactly that twice before. The restructuring plan was sanctioned and the business survived. Without the right CFO in place we would not have got there.”

CEO, UK Mid-Market Business — Restructuring Plan Process

The UK restructuring toolkit and its executive implications

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 materially expanded the UK’s formal restructuring options, creating the restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 as a cross-class cramdown mechanism alongside the existing scheme of arrangement and CVA tools. This legislative change has created a generation of restructuring processes that are more complex, more lender-facing, and more legally intensive than their pre-2020 equivalents — and that require executives with specific experience of navigating them.

The executive in a formal restructuring process must simultaneously manage the court process and its documentation requirements, the lender steering committee and its information demands, the operational business and its trading performance, and the employee and customer communications that determine whether the business retains the people and relationships it needs to survive the process. Each of these requires specific knowledge and experience that a general manager — however capable — will not have without prior restructuring exposure.

Restructuring executive mandate types

Restructuring CEO — the chief executive appointed to lead the business through a formal restructuring process. The restructuring CEO must combine the legal process management capability to navigate the restructuring plan, CVA, or administration timeline with the operational management capability to keep the business trading through it. Their lender relationship management skills and their ability to maintain credibility with the business’s key constituencies — employees, customers, suppliers — while the legal structure is being rebuilt are as important as their financial expertise. See our Turnaround Executive Recruitment page for the broader context.

Restructuring CFO — the finance leader who owns the financial management of the restructuring process: cash flow management and cash preservation, lender information requirements and covenant management, court documentation and financial evidence, and the financial modelling that underpins the restructuring plan’s viability case. The restructuring CFO is typically the individual whose technical capability and lender credibility most directly determines the outcome of the process. An ICAEW or ACCA-qualified CFO without specific restructuring exposure will not have the skills this mandate requires.

CRO (Chief Restructuring Officer) — a specialist appointment common in US restructuring practice and increasingly seen in UK processes, particularly where US lenders are involved. The CRO typically operates alongside the existing CEO and CFO, taking specific responsibility for the restructuring plan design and execution while the CEO and CFO manage the ongoing business. The CRO mandate requires the deepest restructuring specialism of any executive appointment and draws from a very small candidate pool of individuals with Big Four restructuring partner or equivalent backgrounds who have transitioned to executive roles.

Post-administration operational leader — the executive appointed to lead a business that has been acquired through administration or a pre-pack process. This mandate combines the turnaround CEO’s skills with the specific challenge of rebuilding a business that has been through formal insolvency: managing the reputational damage, retaining key staff who have experienced the distress, rebuilding supplier credit terms, and establishing the commercial relationships that the business needs to operate under new ownership.

The candidate pool

Former Big Four and specialist restructuring advisory professionals who have moved into executive roles are the primary pool for formal restructuring mandates. Their technical knowledge of UK insolvency law, restructuring plan process, lender dynamics, and court documentation is directly applicable and immediately deployable. The adjustment required is from advisory to accountable executive — managing the business rather than advising it — and the individuals who have made this transition successfully are a small and valuable group.

Turnaround executives with formal restructuring process experience — CEOs and CFOs who have led businesses through CVAs, restructuring plans, or administration processes as line executives rather than advisers — are the most directly comparable to the mandate. Their combination of executive accountability and restructuring process experience makes them the most credible candidates for formal restructuring leadership roles.

Interim executives from the restructuring market — experienced turnaround and restructuring professionals who operate on a portfolio basis across multiple mandates — are the most immediately deployable pool for urgent formal process situations. Many have direct relationships with insolvency practitioners, lenders, and restructuring law firms that are immediately valuable in the early days of a mandate.

Working with Exec Capital on a restructuring mandate

Every restructuring executive mandate is led personally by Adrian Lawrence FCA. The combination of ICAEW fellowship, direct experience of corporate finance and restructuring contexts, and direct network access to the UK restructuring executive community means that Exec Capital can identify and deploy the right executive quickly enough to matter in a formal restructuring timeline.

For the turnaround CEO and CFO appointments that precede or complement formal restructuring, see our Turnaround Executive Recruitment page. For the PE portfolio context in which many restructuring mandates arise, see our Private Equity Executive Search hub.