Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) bolstered its North American Commercial Restructuring practice with the addition of Evan Blum and Matt Covington who join as managing directors in New York and Los Angeles, respectively. Together they bring more than 30 years of financial advisory, turnaround consulting and interim management expertise, with portfolios of work that include restructuring matters and special situations in court and outside of bankruptcy.

Blum joins A&M from Glass Ratner and has also held positions at Triax Capital Advisors, Communications Equity Associates and Merrill Lynch.
He represents domestic and international clients in industries including media, telecom, coal, retail, finance, grocery, food processing, real estate/hospitality and manufacturing. He is an expert in both the operational and financial aspects of restructurings.

Blum has also managed liquidity and business plan issues and negotiated complex balance sheet restructurings and recapitalizations. He has extensive experience in bankruptcy planning and strategy, assistance in the negotiation of debtor in possession financing, preparation of liquidation analyses and the development of recapitalization and refinancing plans.

Covington joins A&M from Conway MacKenzie and has also worked at Kibel Green, Chanin Capital Partners/Duff & Phelps and Credit Suisse First Boston.

He advises debtors, creditors and financial sponsors across sectors including aerospace/defense, energy, food processing, forest products, government, grocery, manufacturing, real estate, retail and staffing. Practiced in leading all aspects of the restructuring process, he has negotiated with lenders and other creditor constituencies, developed cash flow forecasts and liquidity assessments, prepared and reviewed business plans, identified capital structure alternatives and developed restructuring and reorganization strategies.

Covington is a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (CIRA) and a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP).

“As the turmoil in oil and gas bleeds into other markets, many organizations will face fiscal challenges that can only be resolved by the most practiced restructuring professionals — talent best exemplified by Evan and Matt,” said Jeff Stegenga, chair of A&M’s North American Commercial Restructuring practice.