Victoria Brilliant joins leadership team of McGrathNicol’s deals practice

McGrathNicol has recruited Deloitte’s former regional consumer sector M&A leader Victoria Brilliant as a deals partner in Melbourne, the practice’s third addition this year.

Victoria Brilliant joins McGrathNicol after spending more than a decade and a half at Deloitte, where she served as Asia Pacific consumer M&A leader for seven years up until August, having earlier led financial advisory in Melbourne.

Brilliant’s addition to the firm’s deals partnership comes shortly after the arrival of Trevor Dorahy from PwC, while his Sydney office colleague Courtney Roe was promoted to partner within the practice at the beginning of the year.

Admirably resisting the urge to pun about its brilliant new recruit, McGrathNicol says: “Victoria is valued for her ability to bring clarity to complex situations and navigate competing stakeholder interests with a calm, commercial and solutions-focused approach. Her style is highly collaborative and grounded in long-term relationships, underpinning her reputation as a trusted advisor.”

Victoria Brilliant

An applied science graduate of RMIT who later gained a masters in finance from the university, Brilliant kicked off her professional services career in the finance sector with Greenhill, where she rose to vice president before joining Deloitte as an associate director in 2009 and being made a partner three years on. She then led the firm’s Victorian financial advisory practice for two years.

Appointed to her most recent role as Asia Pacific consumer M&A lead in 2018, Brilliant has since advised numerous well-known brands in the consumer, industrials, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors across the region on complex corporate finance transactions, including as to mergers & acquisitions, divestments, takeovers, and defence situations.

In addition to having advised the likes of Mondelez and Australia Post, Brilliant has served as the lead on high-profile deals such the sale of Australian tea retailer T2 to Unilever and EL&C Baillieu’s sale to wealth management firm Ord Minnett, and is noted for her strong track record in executing cross-border transactions and guiding founders and business owners at pivotal junctures.

“McGrathNicol is an entrepreneurial, partner-led business with a clear and consistent focus on delivering outstanding outcomes for clients, and there is a strong sense of ownership and pride in the work and a disciplined, high-quality approach across transactions, restructuring, cyber, and forensic services,” Brilliant said in a LinkedIn post upon joining the firm.

Deals partnership

Brilliant becomes McGrathNicol’s fifteenth deals partner across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland and Perth, with former PwC director Trevor Dorahy recently joining the firm after more than two decades at the Big Four between Sydney and New York. Courtney Roe was also elevated in January after having joined from Findex/Crowe in 2018, where she had spent eight years.

Both based in Sydney, Dorahy adds more than two decades of buy-side and sell-side experience across financial due diligence, strategy, carve-out transactions, contract negotiations, and working capital analysis, while Roe is a corporate finance expert who specialises in the valuation of businesses, equity interests, and intellectual property for commercial and legal purposes.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Trevor to the partnership,” McGrathNicol’s deals leader Andrew Fress said at the time of Dorahy’s appointment. “Trevor’s extensive experience will support the growing demand for transaction experience and help us deliver more corporate finance solutions. We look forward to the impact he will make as Partner and as a leader of our growing Deals practice.”