Martin Beck, Chief Economic Advisor, EY ITEM Club
Martin joined the EY ITEM Club as Senior Economic Advisor in July 2021 and has two decades’ experience in analysing and forecasting the UK economy. He joined the EY ITEM Club from his role as Lead UK Economist at Oxford Economics. Prior to this, Martin covered the UK economy at Capital Economics. He previously spent over 10 years at HM Treasury.

Nicholas Bennet, Barrister, 29 Bedford Row
Nick specialises in advising on complex divorce disputes, particularly involving companies, trusts and issues of foreign law; and on drafting the pre- and post-nuptial agreements which can avoid those disputes. The nature of Nick’s drafting practice means that the identity of the bulk of his clients is strictly confidential; but he acts for a wide range of business leaders, celebrities, aristocratic and landed families and other wealthy individuals. He is also instructed on behalf of businesses and trustees wanting to put in place common guidelines for nuptial agreements for their staff or beneficiaries.

Mr Justice Butcher KC
Mr Justice Butcher is a Judge of the Commercial Court. He was the first judge responsible for the management of Covid BI cases, was a member of the Divisional Court which decided the FCA Test Case, and subsequently heard the Stonegate, Various Eateries and Greggs trio of cases.

Tim Crockford, Partner, Clyde & Co
Tim helps clients to manage risk and resolve disputes. He provides clear, no nonsense commercial advice on risk management, helping clients to avoid liabilities and disputes arising in the first place and, if they do arise, advising on the most cost-effective method of concluding them.

Margaux Eckle, Cybercrimes Investigator, Chainalysis
Margaux is a Cybercrimes Investigator at Chainalysis specializing in stolen funds and broader web3 investigations. Since joining the company, Margaux has investigated numerous large-scale hacks, tracking the movements of over $15 billion USD worth of stolen funds. Prior to joining Chainalysis, Margaux worked at Kroll, one of the world’s largest investigations consultancy firms. 

Eve Giles, Partner, Allen & Overy
Eve is a leading white collar crime specialist. She has acted in a number of high profile trials brought by the SFO and CPS and acts for both individuals and domestic and multinational corporations in a broad range of sectors, including criminal investigations into bribery, money laundering, fraud, cartels and financial services offences. She regularly advises in cross border investigations.

Geoff Mesher, Managing Partner, Tempest Forensic Accounting
Geoff is an experienced forensic accountant. He worked for KPMG for 17 years and also spent two and a half years as a Forensic Partner with Grant Thornton. Tempest Forensic Accounting UK LLP was formed with Caroline and Karen in March 2013.

Geoff carries out forensic accounting and investigation work. He has produced many expert reports and worked on numerous loss of profit and valuation engagements arising from a wide range of commercial, matrimonial and other disputes. He has also acted as expert in criminal matters relating to fraud. He is also particularly experienced in the quantification of warranty and indemnity insurance claims.

Geoff has led many fraud investigations, investigating misappropriation of assets, professional negligence and fraudulent financial reporting cases for both public and private sector clients. He is a Member of the Academy of Experts and a Certified Fraud Examiner with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Sandra Mossios, Co-founder, author and editor, BVB
Sandra is a Partner at EY in London where she focuses on Contentious Valuations & Damages. She is co-founder of the annual publication "BVB Insights”. For the past 20 years she has specialised in commercial valuation and litigation support providing expert witness work for hundreds of large international complex disputes. She is the UK Senior Vice President of the ASA and sits on the Standards Review Board of the IVSC.

Polly Richard, Partner, Travers Smith
Polly is a partner in the Dispute Resolution Department. She has a broad range of commercial litigation experience including disputes arising out of corporate transactions, multi-jurisdictional insolvency litigation and contentious regulatory investigations. Polly has particular expertise in matters involving allegations of fraud.

Polly co-led the Travers Smith team which acted for the joint nominees in relation to the high-profile challenge to Caffe Nero's company voluntary arrangement (CVA). This case has had important ramifications for landlords, CVAs, insolvency practitioners, high-street retailers and the hospitality industry.

Most recently, Polly was one of the partners on the Travers Smith team that advised Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the Claimants, in relation to the high profile, highly publicised and complex dispute amounting to US$5 billion arising out of the US$11 billion acquisition of Autonomy Corporation plc in late 2011.

Polly was recognised in The Lawyer’s 2022 Hot 100 list, which lists the profession's brightest and most innovative lawyers. Polly is also recognised in the 2024 edition of "Best Lawyers in the United Kingdom".

Nicola Rushton KC, Barrister and Deputy Head of Chambers, Hailsham
Nicola specialises in professional negligence and commercial claims, especially those with a property or finance dimension. Her areas of expertise include: professional negligence of surveyors, solicitors and accountants; lender claims and all issues connected with secured lending; all types of claim arising from commercial contracts; director and officer (D&O) claims; insolvency, individual and corporate; freezing orders, fraud, tracing and constructive trusts. She has a niche specialism in enforcement of legal aid regulations and legal aid costs.

Steve Thompson, Director, Grant Thornton
Steve has nearly 30 years of accounting experience, mostly as a forensic accountant advising clients in disputes and investigations, I've been instructed as an expert accounting witness or adviser by individuals, public listed companies and government bodies in several hundred assignments. Steve has developed particular expertise in insurance claims, having worked on some of the largest claims arising from property damage ever submitted in the UK.

Natasha Winter, Partner, Litigation, Addleshaw Goddard
Natasha is a Partner with extensive experience of litigating in the High Court and acting for clients in high-value, complex disputes. She regularly provides advice on contractual disputes and warranty claims to clients including FTSE 100 companies, financial institutions, giants in the retail and consumer sector and high net worth individuals.

BVB Insights: Data and Analysis on UK Private Company Multiples is the world's only guide to the latest transaction multiples paid for UK private companies in over 40 industry categories. In compiling BVB Insights, we use an extremely robust methodology, consulting a variety of sources and cross-checking them against extensive corroborating evidence for every transaction. For accuracy and consistency, we normalise the data and couple it with independent insights into the factors that are driving multiples in today's market. Produced annually from 2013, BVB Insights puts at your fingertips, for the first time ever, reliable, robust and researched information on transaction multiples paid for UK companies.

The Academy is the professional society and accrediting body for expert witnesses of all disciplines. It is independently run by experts for experts and those using them.