Company Turn Around: The Basics of Company Distress, Restructuring, and Early Warning Signs

Brendan G. Best

Brendan G. Best, Partner in the Detroit office of Varnum, Attorneys at Law, focuses his practice on workouts and bankruptcies, representing creditor, debtors, and other parites in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, out-of-cour workouts, distressed restructuring transactions and general insolvencies.  Brendan has a national bankruptcy practice, serving clients in diverse industries including manufacturing, automotive, building supply and service, energy, oil and gas, health care, food service, gaming, hospitality, construction and real estate.

Brendan also serves as outside bankruptcy counsel for an international building supply and service company, advises clients on commercial issues with troubled customers and suppliers, and serves as counsel to official unsecured creditors' committees in Chapter 11 cases.

Brendan is an experienced federal and state court litigator and has successfully represented clients in bench trials over issues including adequate protection, plan confirmation, valuation and other matters, as ell as non-dischargeablility actions, avoidance actions, and other debtor-creditor matters in state and federal courts.  He is frequent writer and speaker on bankruptcies and workouts.

John Dimovski CFE,CVA

John Dimovski, Managing Partner at Harmon Partners in Birmingham, is a strategic adviser serving owners and managers of privately held companies in the lower middle market.  His areas of expertise include performance improvement, profit maximization, growth, project management, interim management, corporate finance, turnaround, crisis management, accounting systems and internal controls, financial and forensic accounting, business valuation, litigation support, and transaction due diligence.

Mr. Dimovski was recently recognized as one of the top M&A, finance, and turnaround professionals in the country and the M&A Adviser's 2012"40 Under 40" Awards for the Central Region.  He also was a key member of a restructuring team responsible for the successful turnaround of a distressed food processing company.  He led several critical initiatives that drove the company's recovery, and served as interim Chief Restructuring Officer.  This transaction won "Turnaround Deal of the Year" awards from both the Turnaround Management Association and the M&A Adviser, and also received the "Industrial Manufacturing/ Distribution Deal of the Year" award from the M&A Adviser.

Prior to co-founding Harmon Partners, Mr. Dimovski was a Director in the Litigation Support and Turnaround & Corporate Finance practice at a boutique middle market consulting firm, where he focused on complex business valuation, forensic accounting and strategic advisory services.  He began his career in accounting as an auditor and litigation support consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, where his responsibilities included audit and assurance services, assessment of accounting control structures and procedures, lost profit and economic damages analysis, business valuation, fraud investigation, forensic accounting, and bankruptcy litigation work.  Mr. Dimovski has led and managed teams of financial analysts in working with outside counsel, lenders, shareholders, and other parties on complex litigation assignments, audits, restructurings and other project based assignments, achieving highly favorable results for his clients. 

Mr. Dimovski also served as a senior financial analyst for BorgWarner, a Fortune 500 auto supplies, where he was responsible for the financial reporting and accounting control environment of a $400 million business line.  He managed the consolidation of financial statements, was responsible for ensuring compliance with GAAP and SOX reporting requirements, oversaw the request process for divisional capital appropriations, and analyzed all new business quotes.