Meet the team

Simon has over 25 years of accounting and finance experience, the majority of which have been spent specialising in insolvencies and business restructures.

Since moving to New Zealand from the UK, he has continued his work in business restructuring, as well as handling receiverships and liquidations for multiple sectors, including hospitality, manufacturing and agriculture. He also has considerable experience in the other industries pertaining to property and construction, as well as retail and service.

Prior to joining Gerry Rea Partners, he was one of the owner/managers of a consulting firm based in London. The firm specialised in insurance company run-off work, with Simon also involving himself in due diligence work, Part VII transfers, Liquidations, Provisional Liquidations and both solvent and insolvent Schemes of Arrangement.

While based in London, he worked on some of the largest insurance insolvencies in the world and spent some time consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Simon became a Partner in 2010 and Managing Partner in 2017.

Qualifications

Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Chartered Accountant
Accredited Insolvency Practitioner

Matt joined Gerry Rea Partners in February 2012 as an Insolvency Manager, specialising in both solvent and insolvent liquidations. Most recently Matt was the New Zealand Tax Manager for Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, one of many roles he has assumed in his years as a specialised accountant.

Upon joining Gerry Rea Partners, Matt brings 10 years of trans-Tasman experience having worked as an accountant specialising in tax advisory and compliance for two of the “Big 4” accounting practices and also as an in-house tax advisor for numerous large corporations.

Matt’s experience before joining Gerry Rea included providing tax consulting and compliance services to a diverse range of entities and individuals. This included preparing or completing both direct and indirect tax filings accurately and on time. Matt has also been actively involved in tax risk management, overseeing audits and reviews by tax authorities as well as undertaking risk review projects monitoring business activities and transactions and implementing risk mitigation plans.

Through his time at Gerry Rea, Matt has been involved in a number of liquidation assignments thus far for a range of business types due to his extensive tax consulting experience. Matt has spent time advising on the tax implications of business transactions, acquisitions and divestments, new company set-ups and structures and the tax implications of restructuring activities including liquidations and amalgamations.

Matt has also developed hands on experience in accounting and reporting for non-profits having held responsibility, on a voluntary basis, for the accounting functions of both a non-profit organisation and a charitable trust.

On 1st April 2014, Matt became a Partner at Gerry Rea.

Qualifications

Chartered Accountant
Accredited Insolvency Practitioner

A former partner at KPMG for 18 years, Paul has a breadth of experience in business advisory, audit and insolvency. He has served as a senior executive with two public listed companies, and held a number of directorships on the boards of private companies.

Other appointments have included General Manager of Finance for a major Government Department, and Director of Financial Services in regional Government.

Since joining the practice, Paul has undertaken corporate advisory, insolvency, corporate recovery, voluntary administration, and litigation support assignments. Now specialising in insolvency and corporate recovery, he has completed a wide range of cases covering most areas of corporate activity. These include retail, manufacturing, construction, mining and resources, transport, service industries, finance, hospitality, and property development.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Commerce Canterbury University
Chartered Accountant

John’s career has included 26 years in public practice both at Gerry Rea and with another Auckland based firm, together with 7 years as a forensic accountant at the Serious Fraud Office.

His special interest area is litigation support and forensic accounting, primarily in the quantification of economic loss claims, the valuation of companies and business activities for relationship property settlements and shareholder disputes. His experience and successes have proven him as a valuable asset in any dispute involving financial matters.

Qualifications

Chartered Accountant
Bachelor of Commerce Auckland University
Certified Fraud Examiner

Prior to joining Gerry Rea Partners Ben worked in specialist insolvency firms in both Australia and New Zealand. He has worked on a range of corporate insolvency appointments across a range of industries, including Liquidations (both court and voluntary), Receiverships, Voluntary Administrations and Deeds of Company Arrangements.

Ben has experience running the trade-on and sale of businesses, as well as comprehensive investigations into company failures and voidable preference recoveries.

Ben works primarily on corporate insolvency appointments and is focussed on maximising the return to creditors. Ben has experience working with companies with turnovers ranging from $50,000 a year to $30,000,000 per year.

Outside of work Ben enjoys travelling with his wife Chaitali and is a passionate follower of many sports, and is actively involved in rugby union as a rugby referee.

Qualifications:

Bachelors of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Auckland
Masters of Laws with Honours (Commercial Specialisation) from the University of Auckland
Admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand