J. Cullen Email Address

Former Chair

Menzies LLP is one of the UK's largest regional firms of accountants and advisers to privately owned businesses. It operates from seven offices in London and the South East and its services include accounting, audit, corporate tax, corporate finance, private client, outsourcing and payroll. www.menzies.co.uk. Menzies LLP is a member of HLB International. Formed in 1969, HLB International is a world-wide network of independent professional accounting firms and business advisers.

I provide assistance and solutions to business who are looking to reconstruct their business or wind it up voluntarily with a view to making capital distributions to the shareholders.In addition, I help businesses and individuals in financial distress to understand the options available to them and to find the best solution. Often it's a case of providing the clients with good advice so that they can manage the issue themselves. If the problem requires a statutory solution, some of the options we can consider are:Company Voluntary Arrangements - coming to formal agreements with creditors to return their debt (or a proportion of it) over a period of time. This can be a useful tool if the business is successful but has built up a lot of historic debt;Administrations - this can be a good process if the key is saving all or part of the business. The business may be traded on with a view to a sale or sold on the day of the Administrator's appointment in a procedure known as a pre-packaged sale, so long as best practice is complied with; or Liquidations - this can be a useful mechanism if the company has reached the end of its life and would benefit from an orderly winding up and asset sale. My specialisms include companies with international interests and turnaround. I have an interest in good governance and I have worked on governance projects from review to implementation.I am also a Council Member for ACCA. I have sat on the Joint Insolvency Committee, the standard setting organisation for the industry and was a member of a working party, providing assistance to the European Commission in developing its proposed Restructuring Directive.I chair ACCA's Standards Board, sit on its Regulatory Board and I am Vice Chair of its Governance Design Committee.I am Chair of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies, the voice of accountancy within the U.K and Ireland.