2021 Virtual ART: Tools for a Robust Recovery - Insolvency Reform in Africa in the Context of COVID-19

Tuesday, 9th November 2021 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm GMT

Speakers

Felix Addo -  Ghana

Felix E. Addo is the immediate past Country Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana and a former member of the PwC Africa Governance Board. Felix has more than 30 years of practice and consulting experience in corporate finance and recovery, financial, operational and forensic auditing, arbitration and mediation, Capital Projects and Infrastructure (CP&I), organizational restructuring and performance improvement engagements in both developed and developing economies. 

Since his retirement from PwC, he is currently the Administrator/Liquidator for the United Steel Company and has developed a portfolio of Board roles in the consumer, financial services, oil and gas and governance sectors. He currently serves on the Board of various organizations including Guinness Ghana Breweries (Chairman), MTN Ghana/Scancom Plc, KEK Insurance Brokers, Payswitch Company, President of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA), Member of the University of Ghana Alumni Council, and a Trustee of Achimota Golf Club. 

Felix has previously served on Boards of Standard Chartered Bank Plc and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (Chairman). 

Felix was a member of the Professor Justice Date-Bah Business Law Reform Committee of Experts which reviewed the Ghana Companies Act and the Bodies Corporate Insolvency Act. 

Felix was recently honored with a D.Sc (h.c) by the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa. Felix holds a BSc Hons. (Administration) from the University of Ghana and a MA (Professional Accounting) from Loyola College, Maryland, USA. 

His professional certifications/memberships include, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Institutes of Chartered Accountants (Ghana and Sierra Leone), International Insolvency Institute (III) and INSOL International.

Felix is a Founding Member of the INSOL International Africa Roundtable (ART). 

Elsie Addo Awadzie - Bank of Ghana, Ghana

Elsie Addo Awadzi is Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, having been appointed to the role in February 2018. She has oversight of the Bank of Ghana’s banking supervision, market conduct, and financial stability functions, among others. She is a member of the Financial Stability Council which has representation from financial regulatory authorities in Ghana and the Finance Ministry, and is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana. Before her appointment as Deputy Governor, she was Senior Counsel of the Financial and Fiscal Law Unit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Legal Department where she conducted financial sector stability assessments on G20 countries and provided technical assistance for the design and implementation of banking supervisory, resolution, and crisis management frameworks in a number of IMF member countries. Before joining the IMF in 2012, Elsie was a Commissioner of Ghana’s Securities & Exchange Commission for six years, worked on key financial sector reforms in Ghana and abroad, and worked in private law practice and banking, among others. She holds an LL.M. degree (International Business and Economic Law) with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center (2012), M.B.A. (Finance) and LL.B. Degrees from the University of Ghana (2000 and 1993 respectively), and a post-graduate qualifying certificate to practice law from the Ghana School of Law (1995).

Martin Baumgartner - Standard Bank, Africa

Martin leads a team of credit restructuring and debt recovery professionals within the Wholesale Clients Division of Standard Bank Group, covering the group’s operations across sub Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the BS&R team in 2008, Martin held various positions within the Standard Bank Group, notably including Head of Credit for Stanbic Bank Tanzania and Head of Corporate Banking for Stanbic Bank Uganda. Martin’s education  includes a MBA (University of the Witwatersrand) and a diploma in Insolvency Law  and Practice (AIPSA / Rand Afrikaans University).

Anurag Das - IARC, India

Mr. Das is CEO of IARC, which serves as Blackstone’s India distressed & NPL investment platform. Over two decades, he has invested in distressed and private credit, high yield, rescue/mezzanine, DIP loans and special situations equity and hybrids across North America, Europe and Asia- Pacific markets. Earlier, he was an advisor to Blackstone, managing partner of Rain Tree Capital, Head of Asia-Pacific at King Street, and earlier in the US & Europe with King Street, Perry Capital and Bain Capital Credit.

Mr. Das is an expert in distressed and turnaround investing, non-performing loan resolution, and banking and bond market reforms in India, the Asia-Pacific and emerging markets. Involved with India’s new insolvency reforms from the outset, he is a regular speaker and an expert columnist on aspects of Indian insolvency and turnarounds. Mr. Das has testified before the Indian Parliament on the FRDI bill, contributed to the IBBI and IICA annual journals, and been invited to a judicial colloquium for the first batch of members of the National Company Law Tribunal. He serves on the Board of Governors of INSOL India, the Stressed Assets Committee of FICCI, the Financial Markets Committee of CII, the Advisory Board of the Centre for Insolvency and Financial Laws of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai, and the Advisory Committee for the Graduate Insolvency Program at the National Law Institute University, Bhopal.

Mr. Das received an MBA from Harvard, a BA Honors as a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford, and a B.Sc. Honors in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Miquel Dijkman - World Bank Group

Miquel Dijkman is a Lead Financial Sector Specialist with the World Bank in the World Banks’ Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) global practice. He currently works on a range of stability-oriented topics in South Asia Region, including non-performing loan resolution, and crisis management. Prior to his current assignment, he was program manager of the Vienna-based Financial Sector Advisory Center (FinSAC), that supports select client countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in building more resilient financial sectors through the provision of bilateral technical assistance, knowledge events and analytical work. He joined the World Bank in 2009 and has worked on a broad range of financial stability-related topics in client countries worldwide. He has contributed to and led technical assistance missions covering banking supervision, regulation and legislation, the financial sector safety net and crisis preparedness, non-performing loan resolution and systemic risk analysis. He has participated in thirteen Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs), including the 2017 China FSAP Update, which he led on behalf of the World Bank.

Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked at Central Bank of the Netherlands, and as a national central bank expert at the European Central Bank. He holds graduate degrees from Radboud University in international economics and development studies.

 

Adam Harris - Chair, Africa Round Table, INSOL Past President, Bowmans, South Africa

Adam Harris is a partner in our Dispute Resolution Department and is based in our Cape Town office.

Adam specialises in corporate restructuring, business rescue and insolvency-related matters. He represents lenders, creditors and other institutions (such as professional indemnity insurers), as also business rescue and insolvency practitioners, in the restructuring of companies, the administration of insolvent estates and the winding-up of companies. He also represents foreign appointees in relation to their recognition and asset recovery both in South Africa and in other African jurisdictions. Adam has advised a number of international creditors and practitioners of various mining operations regarding the disposal and /or recovery of assets in South Africa. 

Adam has attended to some of the leading cases on different aspects of business rescue and insolvency such as the constitutionality of interrogations, impeachable (“claw-back”) transactions, procedural aspects of liquidation applications and Practitioners’ remuneration. 

He is a past-president of INSOL International, having served as President for two years. 
He also served for several years as a national councillor of the South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association (SARIPA) and chaired the Law Society of South Africa’s Insolvency Committee.

He is one of the co-authors of “Mars, the Law of Insolvency”, 9th and 10th editions, a leading insolvency text in South Africa.
He holds BA, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Cape Town.

Damien Hodgkinson, Olvera Advisors, Australia

PRINCIPAL

Damien is a principal of Olvera Advisors, a company established in 2020 to meet the needs of family-controlled and entrepreneurial organisations going through stress and distressed driven change.

He also chairs the Board of a major NSW events organisation and sits on the board of a number of philanthropic organisations including one of the country's leading "climate change" funds.

Damien believes to effect change in any organisation you need to be hands-on, and in the room. An effective advisor understands the outcomes for all the stakeholders, not just the outcome for the party he represents.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Damien started his career with Arthur Andersen in Melbourne in their Insolvency practice before moving to Ferrier Hodgson in Sydney.

In 1996 he relocated to Hong Kong where he joined boutique restructuring firm RSM Nelson Wheeler as a partner. He has worked across the Asia Pacific and South America on complex cross border organisations representing lenders in the realisation of offshore assets in North American multi-national companies including Akai Electric (Japan), Johnson and Evinrude (USA), and HIH Winterthur (Hong Kong).

After returning to Australia in 2004, Damien joined KPMG as a partner in their corporate restructuring practice in Sydney where he represented corporate debtors in the renegotiation of primary lending facilities as well as lenders in the secondary debt market.
During the 2008 financial crisis, he acted on Board side advisory for a large number of corporate groups including ABC Learning Centres Limited prior to its administration and renewable financier Babcock and Brown International Limited.

In 2009, Damien acted for the interests of Lehman Brothers Asia Holdings Limited in the winding up of Lehman Brothers Australia Limited and led the first formal restructure of a Lehman's entity globally.

Since then he has acted for a number of large private family groups, entrepreneurs on the management and turnaround of large private enterprises in the financial services, retail, hotel and entertainment markets.

In 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, he established Olvera Advisors with three other partners to meet the restructuring needs of a number of private family clients.

During the COVID pandemic, he also advised a number of private equity groups on a portfolio basis on the management of funding facilities across fund assets.

In 2021 he was appointed advisor to the Australian business of a major steel producer, working through the impacts of the collapse of Greensill Capital.

Damien also leads Olvera Capital an entity that provides restructure finance, and funding in the mid cap market for companies going through formal restructure through an insolvency process.

Andrew Jenke - Alantra, UK

Andrew Jenke is a Managing Partner of Alantra’s Credit Portfolio Advisory business. He previously was a partner at KPMG, where he led the global Portfolio Solutions Group. Based in London, Andrew has worked across Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, North America and Africa performing M&A, valuation, due diligence and advisory mandates for banks, governments, non-bank lenders, servicing platforms and various credit, real estate and banking investors, across the credit, banking and real estate spectrum. Over the past 15 years Andrew has led many of Europe’s largest deleveraging mandates, including for IBRC globally (over €22b of credit assets valued and sold) and for AIB in Ireland and the UK (over €15b of credit assets valued and sold). He has also headed complex acquisitions of banking and credit assets, including Lone Star’s purchase of Novo Banco Portugal and Apollo’s acquisition of MBNA Ireland and MBNA Spain; esoteric funding, capital and liquidity solutions for banks and non-bank lenders, including supporting Future Finance in the financing of its back book and new origination. He has also leaded advisory mandates for banks and governments regarding the resolution of banking crises and non-performing loan portfolios, including supporting the Central Bank of Nigeria in the establishment of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria. Andrew is a member of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.  He has Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.

Sheila Kyarisiima - NISK, Kenya

Sheila is a Partner at NISK Capital; a boutique corporate finance and transaction advisory firm covering East and Central Africa. She primarily manages deal execution, particularly overseeing transaction structuring and running the investment process from client onboarding to deal closure across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and DRC. Over the past four years, she has worked on a significant portfolio of distressed or nearly distressed assets across multiple sectors, including: Healthcare, Logistics, Real Estate and Hospitality, and Technology, and is currently leading NISK Capital’s efforts to raise a distressed assets fund for the East and Central African region.

She started her career with Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, and previously worked with Rwanda Development Board; the government body responsible for attracting local and foreign private investments into Rwanda.

Sheila sits on the board of Mayfair-CIB Bank; a merger between Egypt's largest private bank (CIB) and a Kenyan bank (Mayfair) as an independent director and chairs the Board Credit Committee and the Board Audit Committee.

She also holds a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, MA, a Master in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School, MA, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Brown University, RI.

Zuberoa Mainz - IFC Distressed Asset Resolution Program

Zuberoa Mainz is the Regional Lead of IFC’s Distressed Asset Recovery Program (DARP) for the Middle East and Africa. She manages IFC’s projects in the region for the acquisition and resolution of NPL portfolios from local banks, corporate restructuring and turnaround of local businesses.

Previously, Zuberoa worked in DARP transactions in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia in a variety of assets from unsecured retail, mortgages and SMEs NPL portfolios to single distressed assets investments including special lending, corporate restructuring and special situations.

Zuberoa has more than 15 years of experience working in emerging markets and deep expertise in a variety of financial products with a record of success managing complex business transactions.

She holds a BA in Economics and an MBA from The University of Navarra in Spain. 

Antonia Menezes - World Bank Group

Antonia Menezes is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist based in Washington D.C. She provides advisory services to governments on insolvency and debt enforcement reforms, with an emphasis on work in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. She has assisted more than 40 countries in reforming and strengthening their insolvency regimes. 

Ms. Menezes represents the World Bank Group at Working Group V (Insolvency) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). She is also the Co-Chair of the World Bank Group Insolvency & Creditor /  Debtor Regimes (ICR) Task Force, which is responsible for testing and evaluating the effectiveness of the World Bank ICR Principles and Insolvency Standard. 

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Antonia was an attorney at two leading international law firms. 

Joshua Ogwal - CLB Capital, Uganda

Joshua is the Executive Director at CLB Capital, the firm mandated to manage Uganda’s Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC). He is responsible for the structuring the NPL resolution framework of the ARC executing its strategy.

He is a leading financial lawyer in Uganda with significant experience in financial law advisory. He has advised in the development, implementation and restructuring of investment and financing projects in Uganda as well as in M&A transactions. 

Joshua previously worked within Uganda’s Financial Services Industry as an in-house counsel. He led teams at Dfcu Group (DFCU), where he was Head of Legal and Corporation Secretary and participated in the financing of several projects as well as in the work-out and collateral realization of non-performing projects.  He also worked with the East African Development Bank (EADB) as Principal Legal Officer and provided guidance on transactions in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. 

Joshua holds a Masters of Science (MSc.) degree in Finance and Financial Law from the University of London (Centre for Financial and Management Studies) as well as a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) Hons. from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 

George Weru - PwC, Kenya

George Leads PwC’s Business Restructuring Services Practice in East Africa. He has over 15 years’ experience in providing business restructuring, independent business reviews and insolvency services to clients in various jurisdictions including Kenya and the wider East Africa region, Ghana, Cayman Islands and Mauritius.

He is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner in Kenya and Rwanda and has successfully overseen various complex restructuring and cross-border insolvency matters. Prior to joining PwC, George worked in the Cayman Islands where he was involved in a number of reorganization, independent business reviews and insolvency assignments concerning financial services firms (banks and hedge funds).

George holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Leicester, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi and he is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA- K), Chartered Financial Analyst(CFA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner(CFE). 

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