PAUL DAVIES I think like a lot of people, I fell into it by accident. I was working in a bank having taken a year out before university but was offered a role by one of my clients who happened to be an insolvency firm. I worked there for three years learning all about insolvency before making the move to London 23 years ago and my career has never looked back. Since I arrived in London, I have worked in a number of firms and worked in all aspects of distressed business and focused more on turnaround and restructuring as my career has evolved.
Q Is there a deal or transaction that has been especially important or memorable for you?
DAVIES I will always remember a trading insolvency matter that I was working on in Norfolk. It was a duck slaughterhouse, so I had to quickly learn the life cycle of a Pekin duck and see how it went through the factory. We spent a month out at the factory running the business until we found a buyer. It was definitely a unique business that I will always remember working at.
Q What key achievements or milestones have helped you get to where you are today?
DAVIES I’ve always been more short-term focused than long-term. I was named Turnaround Professional of the Year at the TRI Awards in 2017, which was great recognition for me as I moved away from formal insolvency into more restructuring and turnaround. I have always made good career decisions, from joining TMA to expanding my knowledge of the distressed market. It has been really helpful to me to work in all different aspects of the distressed market, and each step has expanded my experience.
Shortly after joining the TMA, I was sat next to Milly Chow, who was then TMA Global President, at a TMA Europe dinner and Milly sold the global aspect of TMA to me—that’s when I became a lot more involved. I blame Milly entirely for all my trips to Las Vegas for the Distressed Investing Conference since we first met which I believe now totals seven!
The market is driven by personal relationships and building these early in my career was a huge part of my career. The importance of these relationships from a younger age can’t be underestimated, and I urge junior professionals to begin building relationships as early in their career as possible.
Q What role has TMA membership played in your career?
DAVIES I joined the TMA UK board back in 2018, as my work had become very turnaround focused and it become a very important part of my career. I was conference chair in 2019 and would have been in 2020 had the COVID pandemic not hit. I took over the TMA UK President role in January 2021, which was a really good time for me as I had recently joined James Cowper Kreston and it gave me an excellent platform to build my profile. I have met some great people, both in the U.K. and globally, and it has definitely helped build out my network.
Q What might people who only know you professionally be most surprised to learn about you?
DAVIES I think most people would be surprised to know that I co-own and am a board director of an ice hockey team in London called the Romford Raiders! (I’ll call it hockey for North American readers, but we also have hockey over here which is a different sport.) I am also a football (soccer, for Americans) fan, brought up supporting Sheffield Wednesday (which is in the Championship – Tier 2), but my son and I are now season ticket holders at Southend United who play in Tier 5 in the U.K., which is still professional and average over 7,000 for a home game.
Q How did you come to own a hockey team?
DAVIES I was a fan of hockey when I was a teenager growing up in Sheffield, which has a professional team that is the most well supported hockey team in the U.K. Sheffield is actually the home of hockey in the U.K., so it was a sport I always loved to watch when I was younger. Fast forward to the last few years and I was looking for something for my family to go and watch together, so we tried watching a number of sports but I was drawn back to hockey. We went to watch the Romford Raiders around four years ago and we all loved it and became fans, attending most home games and cheering the team on.
Then last summer, I saw that the owner was stepping away from the team and there was uncertainty about the future of the team, which had been running for 35 years. I joined forces with a number of other fans to purchase the team and agreed to join the board.
Q Folks usually don’t think of the U.K. when they think of hockey. What is the outlook for the sport in your country? Is interest growing?
DAVIES The U.K. is definitely not known for ice hockey, but it is a growing sport and attendances are on the increase. There is a fully professional league of 10 teams in the U.K., although the rosters are predominantly non-British players and average attendances range from around 2,000 up to around 8,000 in the case of Sheffield. Sheffield were in the European Champions League last season, becoming the first British team to qualify for the knockout stages. But the sport will never be as big in the U.K. as it is in other parts of Europe like Sweden, Czech Republic, and Switzerland, for example.
The U.K. has fewer opportunities to get involved in hockey at a young age with a shortage of rinks available to learn at. At Romford, we play in Tier 2, which is a largely semi-professional league, but we are the highest ranked team in London. We also have a second team that play in Tier 3 and have over 100 kids in our academy looking to breakthrough into our main team. Our league only allows four import players, so our league is the one where you find a lot of the younger British players coming through.
I was in Prague in May 2024 with my family watching Great Britain in the World Championships—and it is great to see Great Britain in the elite of world hockey. Despite relegation that season, Great Britain did qualify again this year and will be at the World Championships in Zurich in 2026. The most well-known current British player is Liam Kirk, who just won the German playoffs with Eisbaren Berlin. He moved away from the British league to seek a higher level of competition. We hope one day we can see a British player in the NHL.
If any TMA members want to see some hockey while they’re in London, make sure to give me a shout! We usually play at home on Sunday evenings between September and April.
Q What’s your favorite part of being involved with the Romford Raiders? What has been the most surprising aspect of sports ownership?
DAVIES I’ve really enjoyed getting to work with the players and having the extra access for my family to interact with them. My kids in particularly have really enjoyed this aspect of it. The most surprising aspect has been the huge amount of time that goes into making the team work. We are all volunteers and have no paid staff except for players and coaches, so it takes a team of 30 to 40 people to make it work.
Q Has a TMA member been especially helpful as you begin your career in the restructuring space, whether that’s as a mentor, friend, or colleague?
DAVIES Yes, TMA has been great for me, I have met some excellent people, and it’s helped build out my network as well as my profile. TMA is a very inclusive association and has a wide breadth of people that operate in and around the profession. I have built some good friendships with people I have met, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the global aspect to the association. I also mentor a couple of people through TMA, and I find this very rewarding. (Hopefully my mentees will agree!)
Q For someone considering joining TMA, what would you tell them to convince them it’s well worth it?
DAVIES For anyone looking for a career or to build a network in the restructuring and turnaround profession, I believe TMA membership is a must have. It gives the best opportunity to network with people within the profession and with so many opportunities to meet, both in the U.K. and globally. TMA also gives you an opportunity to go to Las Vegas every year—and who doesn’t want that?