Meet Our Speakers: IPA Roadshow | Southampton 2026
Our Host
Marcial Boo, Chief Executive Officer, IPA
Marcial has been Chief Executive of the IPA since 2024. He was previously the CEO of three other regulators and worked as a senior civil servant in government. He also chairs the professional body for regulators, the Institute of Regulation.
Managing Difficult Bankruptcies
Ruhi Sethi Smith, Barrister, Forum Chambers
Ruhi has a thriving commercial and chancery practice which focuses company and insolvency disputes as well as fraud and asset recovery. Ruhi typically acts for administrators, liquidators, receivers, and trustees in bankruptcy on a wide range of insolvency applications, freezing injunctions and claims for misfeasance, wrongful trading and misappropriation of company funds.
Ruhi’s recent work includes advising liquidators in relation to claims from investors following the failure of care home development, resisting an application for setting aside a statutory demand for £90million owed under personal guarantees given by a director to obtain a loan, representing joint administrators on an application to sell a valuable property free of interests and advising on the validity and priority of securities and numerous remuneration applications on behalf of administrators and liquidators.
Ruhi is a very experienced advocate and clients have described Ruhi as ‘robust, personable and client friendly with high levels of detail.’ Ruhi was a solicitor before transferring to the bar and worked in a number of well-respected City firms and as a consequence is commercial and pragmatic in her approach.
UK Economic Overview
Andrew Holder, Agent for Central Southern England, Bank of England
Andrew has been Agent for Central Southern England since December 2015, having joined the Agency as Deputy Agent in August 2008. He joined the Bank in 2001, working in Head Office roles that included writing parts of the Bank’s quarterly Inflation Report, working with Chris Allsopp on his review of statistics for economic policymaking, and finally as Research Adviser to Andrew Sentance on the Monetary Policy Committee.
An Inspector Calls
Alan Limb, Inspector, IPA
Alan’s insolvency career began more than 30 years ago. He joined the IPA as an Inspector in 2020 and combines his own experience as an IP, having taken appointments for 14 years, with the assessment skills he developed when studying for a PGCE and qualifying as a Business Studies Teacher in 2019.
He has trained as a Mental Health First Aider and acts as the IPA’s Vulnerability Point of Contact, supporting IPs whose health is affected by their work and vice versa.
ICO Financial Investigations: Regulator and Creditor
Kerry Smith, Investigations Group Manager, ICO
Kerry Smith has worked at the ICO for twelve years. She currently manages the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU), a specialised team responsible for recovering significant civil monetary penalties and undertaking financial investigations under POCA. The FIU also undertakes further investigations into the individuals responsible for breaches of legislation and looks to identify opportunities for disruption and obstruction which can involve partnership working with other agencies.
Kerry has also managed the Privacy and Digital Marketing Investigation Teams. These teams are responsible for enforcement of the data sharing or trading and direct marketing provisions in the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations. Prior to joining the ICO, Kerry worked for a number of organisations in various enforcement and intelligence roles, including HMRC.
Navigating Insolvency Risk: A National Overview Through a Southampton Lens
Charles Everitt, Governance and Technical Lead, HMRC
Charles joined HMRC in 2019 having spent over a decade building his insolvency experience in private practice. Currently working in Fraud Investigations Service’s Economic Crime team, which specialises in maximising the recoveries of the proceeds of crime and protecting against the threat of money laundering and terrorist finance. Charles and his team offer high quality specialist technical and strategic support to operational colleagues, building capability and driving innovation in all aspects of civil recovery and insolvency.
A Brush with the Law – Navigating the Need for Legal Advice as an IP
Mike Pavitt FABRP, Partner, Paris Smith LLP
Mike is a solicitor and partner in Paris Smith in Southampton with more than 25 years’ experience in the insolvency profession. Since 2011 Mike has led the firm’s Corporate Restructuring & Insolvency group, acting for insolvency practitioners, creditors, companies, directors and others affected by insolvency, helping them to navigate its associated risks across the spectrum, from loan transaction to litigation, decision-making to distribution, and everything in between.
Mike works as often on personal insolvency assignments as corporate, contentious as well as non-contentious, and often helps directors with tricky corporate governance issues, assisting them to respond to challenges, investigations, claims and prospective disqualification.
For many years Mike has been involved in the work of insolvency trade body R3 (The Association of Business Recovery Professionals), as a committee member, regional chair for their Southern & Thames Valley region, and for the past 2 years he has been a Council member and director. In this role he has endeavoured to promote not only the work of the insolvency profession itself, but also the development of best practice and high standards through training and effective communication.
Mike has worked on a number of reported insolvency cases and matters involving complaints and claims against insolvency practitioners, and he is a regular contributor to online debates on law and policy and to insolvency and legal conferences.
Andrew Mace, Barrister, Tanfield Chambers
Andrew was called to the Bar in 1997 and has been a partner in major City and International law firms.He obtained his JIEB qualification in 2007 and qualified as an international arbitrator in 2013.He has over 26 years’ experience in the insolvency, restructuring and turnaround arena and acts for officeholders, directors, funders and creditors.
He was a member of the stakeholder committee between 2011 and 2015 advising on the amendments to the Insolvency Rules which culminated in the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016
He has recently advised on Part 26 Restructuring Plans, successful challenges to CVAs as well as providing general insolvency and restructuring advice.
Andrew has recently updated the “Conduct of the Administration” and “Construction and Engineering Insolvencies” chapters in Tolley’s Insolvency Law and was a contributor to Doyle, Keay and Curl: Annotated Insolvency Legislation between 2019 and 2024. He regularly contributes to Lexis publications.
Mark Sands, Partner, Opus Business Advisory Group
Mark has more than 40 years of experience in the insolvency profession, with more than 15 years as an appointment taking insolvency practitioner. Mark’s focus for the last 20 years has been on personal and contentious insolvency cases, with several years spent at a litigation funder reviewing insolvency claims for funding.
Mark advises both creditors, on their best options for achieving a recovery, and debtors, guiding them through their option when faced with insolvency, and brings the experience of acting for both sides in what can be very contentious situations to bring a balanced and knowledgeable view for the benefit of all sorts of clients.
Mark worked on several reported personal insolvency cases, which still influence insolvency practice today.
Mark is a regular presenter at conferences and contributes case analyses to Lexis Nexus.
Employment Rights Act 2025 – What You Need to Know
Claire Merritt, Partner, Paris Smith LLP
Claire qualified as a solicitor in 2009 and is an experienced employment law specialist advising both employers and individuals across all aspects of employment law.
She regularly advises on contracts, disciplinary and performance issues, redundancies, TUPE, settlement agreements and discrimination matters. Claire has extensive Employment Tribunal experience and undertakes her own advocacy. She has advised on several insolvency situations with regard to the employees involved..
Claire has significant experience running bespoke training sessions for employers and HR professionals on many different aspects of employment law. She has been focussing on the changes proposed and no coming into force for the Employment Right Act 2025. She has delivered various talks and manages the ‘ERA 2025 Hub’ on Paris Smith LLP website.
Strategic Update from the Insolvency Service
Louise Chester, Deputy Head of Insolvency Practitioner Regulation, Insolvency Service
Louise has had a varied and interesting career at the Insolvency Service, having worked initially as an investigator and a deputy official receiver, and most recently as the deputy head of the insolvency practitioner regulation team. Louise’s highlights include heading up a team to implement reforms flowing from the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act, as well as the removal of DRO fees and working to prevent avoidable corporate insolvencies during the pandemic.