Adrian Hyde, President

IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, March 2025

Dear all,

I write this as my penultimate President’s column. I will start by saying that I have absolutely loved writing this introduction each month, from the laugh that I have with the Begbies marketing team who (through necessity) relentlessly chase me for my thoughts, to marvelling at how it is then crafted into something which I hope is worth reading and distributed. I thought that it would be a chore having to come up with some words each month, but it only serves to remind me how lucky I have been to be president of the IPA and to be encouraged to write this.

On the back of those opening remarks, I take this opportunity to encourage anyone and everyone to get involved, as much as they can, with the IPA, and with our profession generally. I have been involved in insolvency for almost 36 years, and it has been incredibly rewarding, not least through my involvement and interaction with the IPA, and before that R3. Our industry will only continue to flourish if there is a continued stream of diverse individuals and personalities joining, participating, and leading within it. I must add that my ability to fill the role is only made possible by support; from the team within Begbies Traynor, and the team within the IPA, who work tirelessly to make my job as easy as possible.  

So, to the current personalities: last week it was my absolute privilege to host the IPA Awards evening. The sold-out event was a celebration of everything that is great about our profession; from Georgia Christodoulou, the Rising Star of the Year from Valentine & Co, to the Outstanding Contribution to the Profession winner, stalwart David Buchler, who has spent a lifetime in the industry. The highlights go way beyond that, with David applauding fellow nominee Sonia Jordan for her huge contribution to insolvency, and the crowd backing worthy winner of the insolvency Professional of the Year Large Firm, Hannah Davie. Another pillar of our profession, Simeon Gilchrist, having had the toughest of years, was a most worthy winner of the Insolvency Lawyer of the Year, and the Contentious Team at Azets winning Insolvency Team of the Year rightly being recognised for the breadth and depth of their practice. It is heartening to see the ever-growing profile of diversity within our profession, and it was a pleasure to see Bradley Parrott as the winner of the Diversity and Inclusion Champion category. We also had diversity of firms represented amongst the winners, from large global organisations such as Grant Thornton to Insolvency Professional of the Year (SME) winner Conal Doherty from a small independent firm JT Maxwell in Northern Ireland.

The event reinforced the need for us to recognise and encourage people to join our industry, be they school leavers, apprentices, graduates, lateral hires, or second career IPs, that goes for all of the individuals and their teams, the small firms, the large firms, and those from around the UK, all of whom were represented at the event.  I hope that next year we can grow the event to be even bigger.

My last note on the awards event is to record my thanks to Andrew Forsey from Feeding Britain for taking the time to come down from Newcastle to spend the evening with us. It was amazing to hear him talk about the impact that our donations make, and about the great work that Feeding Britain is doing. It is a stark reminder of the privileged position that we find ourselves in, far away from the harsh realities that many in our society live with every day.