Sponsors

Kevin Hellard

Grant Thornton

Kevin is the practice leader of Grant Thornton’s insolvency practice. He has more than 25 years’ experience of contentious insolvency investigating fraud, misfeasance, professional negligence and asset tracing across multiple jurisdictions. His team specialises in the use of insolvency and court-appointed receiverships as a tool in the identification and construction of claims against directors, advisers and others.

Kevin is routinely appointed by lawyers, government and other regulatory agencies, and significant creditors. He is appointed both in the UK and globally over structures that have suffered losses caused by corruption, fraud or malpractice, and have given evidence in court on numerous occasions as officeholder of companies, who are the victims of fraud. He has presented internationally on corruption and asset tracing, and has a number of articles published on these subjects. He is also a counsel member of the Insolvency Practitioners Association, the leading regulator of insolvency activity in the UK.

Kevin has also been instructed by governments to investigate corruption of the previous regimes and the tracing, recovery and repatriation of misappropriated assets.

Will Davies

Grant Thornton

Will is the managing partner of our forensic and investigations practice. His focus is large commercial disputes, investigations and valuations. Will’s work tends to cover London and many of the world’s offshore financial locations, the Middle East, Europe and North America. His sector experience includes financial services (especially banking and insurance), private equity, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and energy.

He has given evidence in court or at arbitration tribunal in the UK and overseas on more than 30 occasions.

Will’s work typically includes multijurisdictional complex substantial disputes, a few to note include:

• Calyon v IKB Deutsche Industriebank Aktiengesellschaft (2011)
• Financial Guaranty Insurance Company and FGIC UK Limited v IKB Deutsche Industriebank Aktiengesellschaft (2011)
• Investec Trust (Guernsey) Ltd and Other v Glenalla Properties Limited and Others (‘the Oscatello litigation’) (2012)
• Deutsche Bank AG v Sebastian Holdings Inc (2013).

Robert Hanna

Managing Director at Augusta Ventures

Robert is the co-founder of the UK’s largest litigation funder by case volume, Augusta Ventures. Together with his partners, they were early pioneers of the legal finance industry in the UK and now lead an international business with bases in London, Toronto, and Sydney.

Augusta finances a wide range of disputes, from arbitration to litigation across the full range of claim sizes and types. As the UK’s largest player, they are able to make decisions on funding in market-leading timeframes.

Robert is a keen advocate for the UK’s legal system, serving as a board member of professional bodies the Managing Partners’ Forum and the Commercial Litigators’ Forum. He also regularly contributes to industry debates, as an author, commentator, and panellist at industry events.

D Robert Black, Esq

President Athena Private Capital

Mr. Black’s former client assignments and interesting cases include;

Serving as a director of the American University of the Caribbean (“AUC”), an allopathic medical school located in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. He subsequently resigned from the AUC board to assume a greater role in the management of a number of legal and development projects involving the School and its principals. The American University of the Caribbean was recognized by the Accreditation Commission of Colleges of Medicine, an accrediting agency determined by the United States Secretary of Education to have accrediting standards for medical education comparable to those of the United States. DeVry Education Group (DV-NYSE) purchased AUC in 2011.

Assisting lead counsel and trial team for the American University of the Caribbean Companies through protracted litigation in courts around the world that resulted the defeat of all opposing claims; a recovery of $100 million; an award of $3.4 million in attorneys’ fees as sanctions for fraud on the court against the prime opposing party; and a treble damage recovery against the opposing parties for sums taken. Legal issues turned on the laws of Florida, Delaware, the U.S., the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks & Caicos Islands, Nevis, St. Maarten, and Taiwan. See, e.g.: Wachovia Bank, etc., 534 F. Supp.2d 1267 (S.D. Fla. 2007).

Significant involvement, since inception in 2006, with a successful effort to establish one of the newer osteopathic medical colleges in the United States, Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Parker Colorado. Upon the admission of the first class of 150 students in 2008, Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine was believed to be the only for-profit medical school established in the United States in the last century. The Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine received full accreditation from the Commission on Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (“COCA”), an affiliate of the American Osteopathic Association (“AOA”), in 2012. Licensed osteopathic physicians enjoy full medical practice rights in all 50 states, and Rocky Vista University (“RVU”) graduated the inaugural class in Spring 2012. Mr. Black was instrumental in liaising with the AOA during the application and early development phases of the RVU project.