Partner

Con has advised clients globally in a range of activities across the following sectors:

• International hotels and property investments
• Retail, lifestyle, entertainment and arts
• Agri-Food, environmental, transport, logistics and distribution
• Healthcare, childcare and care of the aged
• Technology, media and telecommunications.

Founder and managing partner of one of Ireland's most respected multi-disciplinary advisory firms.

Earlier in his career Con worked for 10 years with a Big 4 firm in Dublin and Philadelphia. Con was a finals prize-winner in both the Chartered Accountancy and Institute of Taxation exams.

Key clients include; Musgrave Group, Ulster Bank, AIB Bank plc, IBRC, NAMA, Bank Of Ireland, Certus, National Irish Bank, Arthur Cox, Kernel Capital, Windsource, KBC Bank, Cornstore Restaurants, Qatar National Holdings, Adriatic Group, Gore & Pelham Hotels London, Chieftain Real Estate South Africa, Cork University Hospital Private Consultants Clinic, Punch Consulting Engineers, Kirby Group, McMahon Group, Castletroy Park Medical Centre, Mr Binman Group, Windmill Lane, Pallas Foods.

He is a member of the advisory board to the Cairns Business School at NUIG and a trustee of EVA+ International. Con is a Bachelor of Commerce graduate from NUIG (formerly University College Galway) and a member of the Marketing Institute.

Brian has held a number of directorships including semi-state companies. Brian specialises in healthcare consulting and corporate recovery.

He has held a vast range of insolvency positions, including examiner, receiver manager and liquidator. He has dealt with various technical and emerging issues in his preparation and submission of liquidator’s reports to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement under Section 56 and S150 declarations.

Brian is also an experienced Examiner and has successfully restructured a number of medium-sized enterprises enabling them to trade out of their difficulties - in 2004 he was appointed Examiner by the High Court to a large construction company, which he successfully restructured under the Examinership legislation introduced in the Companies Act 1990.

Brian is the national adviser to Nursing Homes Ireland and regularly undertakes a variety of assignments on behalf of clients in the healthcare sector. In 2009 and 2010 he worked with over 70 nursing homes preparing a cost model for each nursing home and negotiated rates with the National Treatment Purchase Fund for long term care. In 2007 Brian completed a Fair Price Calculation Model for Ireland on behalf of Age Action Ireland and published the Cost of Care Report, Ireland’s first authoritative Cost of Care Model for long term care in residential settings.

Brian was the 2009/10 President of ACCA Ireland and is a member of the ACCA’s global governing Council - a group of 36 elected members, all ACCA qualified, who collectively form the governing body that is responsible for ACCA strategy and ultimately accountable to members. He was re-elected to serve a second three year term in May 2009.

Brian was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the National Asset Management Agency by the Minister of Finance in December 2009 for a four year term. Brian is a Director of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Foundation Body of Limerick Institute of Technology.

Brian is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Brian is a member of the Consultative Committee of Accounting Bodies - Ireland (CCAB-I (Insolvency)), a member of the London Court of Arbitration, a member of the Turnaround Management Association and The Institute for Turnaround.

Over the past 5 years Brían has led internal audit assignments for organisations in the public and private sectors on both an out-sourced and co-sourced basis. In addition to his Risk Advisory work Brían has extensive experience in leading business transformation initiatives for clients including large-scale ERP and Shared Services implementations. Prior to joining BDO he worked for 12 years with a Big 4 firm in both Management Consulting and Internal Audit & Risk. Brían’s experience spans many industry sectors including Life Sciences, Building Materials, Technology, Financial Services, as well as Public & Semi-State. Brían is a member of both the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers (IMCA). He holds an honours degree in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College and a Certificate in Internal Audit and Business Risk from the IIA.

Stewart’s client portfolio includes a number of subsidiaries of international companies together with a substantial number of Irish based large and medium sized companies.

His range of clients include; Global and domestic information technology and telecoms, Property developers and construction, Hotels, leisure and entertainment, Industrial engineering Food processors and distributors Manufacturing (food, healthcare and clothing etc).

Stewart completed his training in medium sized professional firms in Ireland and the United Kingdom and is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Wealth Management.

Kevin heads up the Financial Services offering and has a portfolio of clients which include a number of securitisation vehicles, leasing entities, treasury operations, insurers and reinsurers.

Kevin also has significant experience in advising on the following:

• Various matters relevant to property developers
• Various matters relevant to hoteliers
• Structuring tax based investment transactions and exits from these
• Corporate reorganisations and restructuring
• Holding company structures
• Wealth extraction
• R&D credits and the IP regime
• Close company issues
• Access to Ireland’s 12.5% tax rate
• Owner-manager income tax issues, and 
• International tax issues

Prior to joining BDO, Kevin worked for Ernst & Young where he was a manager in the Financial Services Group.

Kevin graduated from U.C.D. with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1999. He is an Associate with the Irish Taxation Institute and the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Peter has been involved in large tax based property projects and numerous other tax based deals. He has advised on management buyouts, trade sales, BES and venture capital funding. Peter commenced his taxation career with the Revenue Commissioners where he worked extensively with the multi-national manufacturing sector. During this period he was heavily involved in dealing with the interaction of Ireland’s extensive Double Taxation Treaty network with Irish domestic legislation.

Ciarán advises a number of corporate & personal clients both Irish and multi-national, on their tax planning strategies from both a domestic and an international perspective. This includes advice on Transfer Pricing Strategies, Research & Development Tax credits and Intellectual Property structures. Ciarán heads up the dedicated BDO Sports Unit advising many of Ireland’s leading professional sportspeople on all aspects of their financial and commercial planning. He also advises in tax efficient remuneration for employees, both local and international employees. Ciarán advises many international corporate groups including Google, America Online and Bertelsmann on corporate and personal tax issues. Ciarán has contributed numerous articles on tax issues to the Irish Tax Review and other professional publications. Ciarán worked with the Irish Revenue Commissioners from 1985 until 1990 when he moved to private practice.Ciarán has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of Revenue Relationships & Audits. Ciarán is a member of the Irish Taxation Institute and serves on a Revenue Liaison Committee.

David advises personal and corporate property developers on appropriate tax efficient structures. David has provided taxation advice to clients across numerous industry sectors. Previously he worked in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and is a former Council Member of the Irish Taxation Institute. David is an associate member of the Institute of Taxation Ireland.

John has undertaken many acquisitions and divestments of family companies. His clients include retailers, manufacturers, pharmaceutical and property companies. His areas of specialisms are the purchase and sale of businesses, tax designated properties, public private partnerships and he has experience of advising Irish companies on relevant UK tax matters. John is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and an Associate of the Irish Taxation Institute. He is also an author for the Irish Taxation Institute.

Eddie specialises in advising clients on Corporate Taxation in the areas of property development and investment, corporate reorganisations, sale of business and transfer of family business. He also leads the firm’s Natural Resources/Green Energy Tax Group. Eddie is also an Associate of the Irish Institute of Taxation.

David works closely with lenders, providing positive and constructive solutions. His work includes performing business viability reviews as well as workouts, turnarounds, reorganisation and a myriad of insolvency assignments including receiverships and examinerships.

During his time in the firm David also assumed full responsibility for the operations and running of the firm’s Property department. While in this role, David managed up to 60 property investments on behalf of the firm’s private client base to ensure that investor returns were maximised.

While carrying out this role David’s exposure to property related matters covered areas such as, but not exclusive to:

• The acquisition, on-going investment management and exit from a number of property investments;
• Working with asset and property managers to identify solutions for non-performing assets;
• Working with and advising Receivers appointed to property assets;
• Carrying out investment reviews/appraisals and the preparation of strategy documents for various property investments;
• Refinancing and restructuring of debt secured on property assets;
• Assessing disposal opportunities;
• Sitting on the boards and/or investment committee of property investment funds set up to acquire and manage properties in the UK, Germany and South Africa.

David’s current focus, as Partner in the firm’s Advisory & Recovery department, is on property related receiverships.

Over the past few months he has received a number of receivership appointments from NAMA, AIB, Certus, Ulster Bank, KBC and IBRC. He is currently Receiver to assets with a value in excess of €800m.

David has a Diploma in Business Studies and is a Fellow of the Member Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners.

Alan was responsible for the set up of BDO Simpson Xavier Private Wealth Management Ltd. In 1995 Alan was appointed Managing Director in 1998 and subsequently appointed Partner in BDO Simpson Xavier in 2000. Alan is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and has been appointed by the revenue as a Pensioner Trustee. Alan specialises in advising clients in all areas of Occupational and Self-Administered Pensions, Group Employee Benefits, and Business Protection Assurance. Alan was a council member of the Irish Brokers Association from 2003 to 2006 and served as President 2006-2007.

Ivor oversees Indirect Tax compliance and planning for a broad spectrum of domestic and international clients of BDO which has offices in almost 120 countries worldwide. He is the Chair of the BDO International VAT Centre of Excellence and has lectured on VAT issues both nationally and internationally. Ivor is a member of both the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and the Institute of Taxation in Ireland.

A BDO Partner since 2001, during that period Jim has led on numerous appointments (Examinerships, Receiverships and Liquidations) as well as turnaround, and business reviews. In the last 3 years seven separate Banks have appointed Jim to act as receiver covering numerous sectors including retail, construction, leisure, hotels, property and others.

Jim has acted as liquidator to over 50 Court and Creditor Voluntary Liquidations (CVL) over the last three years and has been a Revenue Commissioner’s nominated Liquidator for the last 10 years. Jim is also responsible for the firm’s significant presence in the ‘Solvent’ Members’ Voluntary Liquidations Market acting for various types of Shareholders and Administrators in this field.

Jim is a fellow of the institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and was an elected council member of the Irish society of Insolvency Practitioners until 2009.

David serves as a Director for a number of BDO subsidiary companies including; BES Management Ltd, BDO Private Wealth Management Ltd. He is also on the Boards of various real estate property funds, consortiums and partnerships and has been involved in the acquisition of commercial, retail and residential properties in Ireland and the UK on behalf of investment syndicates and property funds.

David is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (“ICSA”). He is also particularly involved in overseeing multi-jurisdictions setups, corporate reorganisations, IPO’s and compliance services.

Prior to joining BDO Evin worked with another specialist consulting firm and also an independent strategy consultant working across the UK and Ireland. Over the last 6 years Evin has led the majority of the firm’s major consulting assignments in the public and private sector and has led their push into major capital projects and into the healthcare sector. Evin has an honours Bachelors of Business and Law from UCD and also a Masters in European Studies. Evin is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers (IMCA).

Katharine has built up considerable experience advising private and public companies across a range of transactions including acquisitions, disposals, fundraisings and refinancing. She has worked with a number of companies including Gowan Group, Greenstar, Calyx, Kayfoam, Arnotts and VHI. As Head of the Natural Resources Team in Dublin, Katharine has advised on several of the leading transactions in the Waste and Renewables sector including the acquisition by Greenstar of Veolia’s commercial waste business and the sale of DP Energy’s wind-farm portfolio to ESB. She is also member of our Healthcare Team having advised on several complex restructuring assignments for private healthcare operators. Katharine is a Law Graduate from UCD and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2000.

Sinéad is currently responsible for the management of the Davy BES Funds. Her role includes identifying and assessing suitable companies for investment by the Davy BES Funds and the on going monitoring of the investee companies. Sinéad has extensive experience working with large and medium sized privately owned businesses. With over ten years experience, Sinéad is a multi-disciplined SME adviser having been involved in many assignments including fundraisings, re-organisations, and debt and equity refinancing. Sinéad is a director of BES Management Limited, a joint venture company between BDO and Davy, the company which manages the Davy BES investments. Sinéad is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland.

Teresa has worked with a range of clients from large indigenous companies to international groups in business areas including pharmaceutical, technology and distribution sectors. She has considerable exposure to corporate transactions and re-organisations including working with numerous companies who have listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

John's client portfolio includes a number of international companies together with large and medium sized indigenous Irish companies.

Client sectors include:

• Retail (sector head)
• Professional Services (sector head)
• Technology, Media & Telecoms
• Charity & Not of Profit
• Government & Procurement.

As International Liaison Partner for the firm, John is responsible for communication and international business development across the BDO worldwide network. John completed his training with Coopers & Lybrand in Dublin and transfered to Australia where he worked in industry and ran his own practice.

He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and also a member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants.