Simon Rutherford

"I strive for excellence with integrity in all endeavours. I gain great satisfaction from assisting people attain their goals in both their personal and professional lives. I enjoy the relationships that are formed in this process."

Simon has been a Director of the firm since 1994 and has been practising since 1984. Simon is the Director of Finance and Human Resources and he leads the Business Advisory Services Team.

Simon’s specialist experience and knowledge is predominantly in the areas of corporate governance, business development and strategy, structure, succession, finance, taxation and key operational issues. He sits on the boards for several clients as a paid non-executive director while for others he is active as an independent member of their management team.

He has extensive experience in retail, wholesale, service, engineering, financial services, health and dealer and fleet transport sectors. Simon has prepared, consulted and negotiates costing models for contract owner driver fleets with various public companies.

His major assignment experience includes project managing mergers and acquisitions and preparing groups for sale, debt and equity funding and due diligence, the reconstruction of major industrial firms and investigative accountant’s reports on the affairs of a public company.

Simon also has considerable experience in property development matters including negotiation, structuring, planning, feasibility modelling, funding (both debt and equity via syndication) and taxation.

Simon has a particular interest in business performance measurement and improvement. With proven consulting experience, Simon has written articles and spoken at national and international conferences on shareholder value “Economic Value Added” (EVA) modelling and the Balanced Scorecard Framework.

He was responsible for the growth and management of our Maitland Office which had a team of seventeen prior to its integration into the Newcastle operation in 2001.

As the group designated director of Lawler Financial Services Pty Limited, Simon has played an integral role in successfully building our financial planning business to the success it is today. Whilst he does not practice in financial planning he undertakes considerable estate planning and family succession assignments.

Simon continues to foster strong ties within the Hunter Valley community and has held various positions on sporting and service organisation boards.

Simon's professional qualifications include:

• Bachelor of Commerce
• Registered Tax Agent
• Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors