With more than 30 years of experience guiding businesses through turbulence, Matthew English, CTP, CIRA, has built a career on clarity in crisis. As senior managing director of Arch + Beam, the firm he co-founded in 1998, English has helped companies ranging from scrappy startups to billion-dollar global enterprises stabilize, pivot and recover.
“We’ve been in the trenches,” English says. “What we do is more than fixing balance sheets. It’s about helping people navigate some of the hardest moments of their professional lives.”
An engineer by training with a degree in Operations Research from Cornell, English began his career at Accenture and Deloitte, specializing in process improvement. Over time, his work shifted toward financial distress. Today, he is a Certified Turnaround Professional, Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor, and known across the industry for his leadership — including his role as 2022 Global Chair of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA).
English credits mentorship and mistakes as his greatest teachers. “Early on, we had too much customer concentration. When that industry crashed, we had to restructure our own business. That gave me a deep empathy for our clients,” he says.
His approach to leadership is rooted in humility and accountability. “Say what you do and do what you say — and don’t say it unless you can do it,” he says. He also believes in backing up opinions with hard data: “In God we trust. Everyone else, bring data.”
As the industry evolves, English sees opportunity in transitions — whether driven by capital, regulation or technology. “The firms that can adapt quickly to cycles within cycles will be the ones that thrive.”
But his biggest impact? “It’s the quiet wins — saving jobs, guiding an owner through stress, helping someone find a path forward. That’s what stays with you.”
