Alvarez & Marsal appoints Asia co-heads

Thomas Jones and Oliver Stratton have been appointed co-heads of the Asian arm of Alvarez & Marsal in what are newly created roles.

Jones is already a managing director at the firm, where for the past two years he has headed the Asia side of the company’s involvement in Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy. He told AsianInvestor that this case has, not surprisingly, accounted for a great deal of time in the recent past, but the size of the outstanding Lehman book is now minimal.

Oliver Stratton (pictured below) has been in Hong Kong since 1988 and spent the last 20 years with Bain & Company, including a decade as a partner of the firm.

Their plan is to build Alvarez & Marsal’s business, especially its Greater China practice. The firm traditionally specialised in restructuring and has moved into areas such as business valuations, forensics/dispute resolution, pre-acquisition due diligence, and performance improvement.

Hong Kong is their business hub in Asia, where 20 people are currently employed. There is also an office in India, and the plan is to open up in China in the next couple of years. One objective is to develop their client base and activities representing private equity and hedge funds.

The firm was started in the early 1980s by Tony Alvarez and Bryan Marsal, and it doubled in size in 2003 when it hired 65 people from Arthur Andersen. It continued to grow and now has 1,750 employees worldwide.