Consulting firm Teneo hires ex-Deloitte executive to launch Canadian restructuring team

Global consulting firm Teneo added a financial advisory team to its domestic platform by hiring the former head of Deloitte’s restructuring and insolvency group.

On Friday, Teneo announced Phil Reynolds joined its office in Toronto as a senior managing director and head of what is expected to be a 50-person Canadian unit in two years.

Mr. Reynolds led Deloitte’s restructuring services in the Americas during his nine years at the firm and oversaw some of Canada’s largest and most complex creditor workouts and bankruptcies. He also worked at Alvarez & Marsal and was a partner at KPMG.

Restructuring experts like Mr. Reynolds are joining boutiques such as Teneo in part because regulators, boards and lenders are increasingly concerned with the potential for a conflict of interest between auditors and consultants at an accounting firm when companies face financial challenges.

“I am excited to bring financial advisory expertise to Teneo’s CEO clients across all industries, in a very challenging business environment,” Mr. Reynolds said in an interview.

The decision to join Teneo was driven in part by expectations of a sharp increase in domestic restructurings, due to rising interest rates, U.S. tariffs and significant headwinds for the private credit market, Mr. Reynolds said.

Teneo is a global platform that focuses on advising chief executives. It has 60 professionals in Canada and 1,800 employees at 50 offices around the world.

In the past five years, Teneo acquired Deloitte’s entire 250-employee restructuring business in the U.K., PricewaterhouseCoopers’s insolvency advisers in Australia and New Zealand, and KMPG’s team in the Caribbean and Bermuda. In the U.S., Teneo has built a 50-person financial advisory group by hiring professionals from other firms.

Roughly a third of Teneo’s global employees are in the financial advisory business that Mr. Reynolds leads in Canada.

Teneo launched in Canada 11 years ago by hiring James Crossland, a former mining executive and president of National Public Relations.

Mr. Crossland, Teneo’s global vice-chairman, said getting the right leader for the firm’s financial advisory business has been a priority for some time because “CEOs want seasoned advice on all elements of their business, on strategy and on finance.”

Teneo expects Mr. Reynold’s financial advisory team to be active in a number of sectors, with an initial focus on clients in banking and asset management, aviation, retail, mining and forest products.

Mr. Reynolds also has experience advising on shareholder disputes, including acting as court-appointed monitor or receiver.

“Canada is an important market for Teneo and a natural next step in the continued growth of our Financial Advisory business,” said Daniel Butters, the London-based head of the firm’s financial advisory business, in a press release. Mr. Butters is also a former Deloitte partner.

Teneo has offices in Montreal and Calgary and its advisor team includes former premiers Jean Charest and Jason Kenney, Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu and Desjardin Group CEO Monique Leroux.