KordaMentha appoints 11 partners in Melbourne and Sydney

Business advisory firm KordaMentha has promoted eleven company members to partner in Australia, lifting the size of its partnership to sixty-six.

The new partners have been installed effective July 1st, and are part of the firm’s mid-year partner intake. The new class of twelve partners (which includes one appointment in Singapore) is one of the largest intakes in KordaMentha’s 20-year history, and builds on a record financial year for the Melbourne-headquartered consultancy.

Partner Mark Mentha (who co-founded the firm with Mark Korda) said the promotions show confidence in the outlook for the firm. “We’re building the bench strength of the firm with these promotions to our partnership, enabling us to deliver for our clients and anticipating continued growth for our business.”

Carolyn Ashby
Area of focus: Practice Management
Office: Melbourne

Carolyn is a founding member of KordaMentha 20 years ago, and previously gained restructuring experience at Arthur Andersen. She manages firmwide operations with the other practice management directors and oversees KordaMentha’s governance and compliance activities.

Mary Barnett
Area of focus: Practice Management
Office: Melbourne

Mary has been with KordaMentha for 13 years and is the Chief Financial Officer. Previously, she held a number of roles including in business process outsourcing at Big Four firm PwC.

Michael Butler
Area of focus: Real Estate
Office: Sydney

With over 18 years of experience in the property industry, Michael has significant property development, investment, advisory and work-out expertise. He joined KordaMentha in 2009 and has a technical property background.

Sophie Gibbons
Area of focus: Corporate
Office: Melbourne

Sophie specialises in turnarounds, transformations, and performance improvement. She joined KordaMentha from a Big Four in 2019, and has since worked on two large turnarounds in South Australia’s public healthcare and educations sectors.

Michael Korda
Area of focus: Restructuring
Office: Melbourne

Michael has 15 years of experience in the field of restructuring and has advised both corporates and lenders on a broad range of issues, with significant focus on financial reviews, cash-flow management and performance improvement. He previously served EY for over seven years.

Jenny Nettleton
Area of focus: Restructuring
Office: Sydney

Jenny has over 25 years of experience in the restructuring sector, working with Australia’s major financiers and other stakeholders in formal insolvencies, financial review engagements and preparing expert’s reports. Jenny was a founding member of KordaMentha’s Sydney office in 2004. before that,  she served EY and Arthur Andersen.

David Omond
Area of focus: Real Estate
Office: Melbourne

David has more than 25 years’ experience in commercial property management, development, funds management and corporate finance. He is a co-founder of KM Property Funds (a property management subsidiary of KordaMentha). Prior to forming KM Property Funds, he has held numerous management positions in unlisted funds management, corporate finance and asset management at Heine Management, MCS Property and Centro Properties Group.

Mario Papaleo
Area of focus: Real Estate
Office: Melbourne

A co-founder of KM Property Funds, Mario has more than 20 years of experience in direct real estate, listed and unlisted property investment and funds management. At KM Property Funds, he is responsible for acquisitions and divestments.

Trudi Shepard
Area of focus: Practice Management
Office: Melbourne

Trudi is a founding member of KordaMentha, starting in the Restructuring practice. She was then appointed to head up the firm’s Risk Management program. The program is responsible for instilling a culture of risk awareness, looking for continuous improvement opportunities and providing the infrastructure for KordaMentha service lines.

Ryan Wadsworth
Area of focus: Practice Management
Office: Melbourne

Ryan has been leading KordaMentha’s Technology practice for the last 15 years. He helps clients develop digital plans and solutions, and brings deep knowledge of all major tech verticals – infrastructure, cloud, networking, security and data. Earlier in his career Ryan worked for an IT consultancy was Technology Manager for the 2007 World Swimming Championships (held in Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena).

Yvonne Willich
Area of focus: Practice Management
Office: Melbourne

Yvonne been with KordaMentha for 18 years, and is internally praised for being one of the custodians of the firm’s culture. She has provided counsel and advice on a range of client related engagements, and plays a large role in the development of internal training programs and the streamlining of processes including client feedback and performance management.