R3 in Northern Ireland appoints new chair

Belfast-based Insolvency practitioner and restructuring expert Ian Leonard has been appointed as chair of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 in Northern Ireland.

As chair, Leonard, who is a director at Interpath Advisory in Ireland, will work with R3 to design and deliver events and conferences for members in Northern Ireland, and support the lobbying and representation work it carries out on the profession’s behalf.

Leonard has over 20 years of formal insolvency experience in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he has been involved in and acted as officeholder across all forms of both personal and corporate insolvency.

He also previously worked in restructuring teams at KPMG in Dublin and Belfast, where he worked on a range of cases from small sole traders, through SME businesses to large multinational corporates and PLCs.

He takes over the chair role from James Neill, partner and head of the Turnaround and Restructuring practice at KPMG in Northern Ireland.

Leonard said: “I am thrilled to step into the role of chair for Northern Ireland and am excited to build on the success of the previous chairs to guide, promote and support our members, the profession and the wider business community.

“In particular, I want to ensure more people in the Northern Ireland insolvency and restructuring community have access to the technical support and insight that R3 provides, which has been a real asset to me throughout my career.”

He added: “The work of the profession will become increasingly important with formal insolvency activity starting to rise in Northern Ireland after a number of years of challenging trading conditions, broader macro-economic issues and a build-up of distress among businesses.And with the High Court in Northern Ireland starting to ease the restrictions on the criteria for presentation of Winding-Up Petitions, business owners and directors will need to be more proactive in addressing their financial issues.

“My message to any business owner seeing signs of financial distress is to seek advice as soon as possible and look at the options for resolving their issues as early as they can.While it can be really difficult to talk about your concerns, early advice can unlock a range of potential solutions to your financial worries and give you more time to consider your next steps.”