Member Article

Ruth Duncan appointed Insolvency Practitioners Association president

Ruth Duncan, a director and co-founder of insolvency firm RNF Business Advisory, has been announced as the new President of the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA).

Ruth, who launched RNF Business Advisory (which has offices in Maidstone and London) with Filippa Connor in 2013, was confirmed as IPA president on 7 April 2017. Prior to her appointment, Ruth held the post of Vice-President as well as currently being the Chair of the Finance and General Management Committee at the IPA. She is the third woman to be named as president of the IPA, succeeding Maureen Leslie.

With more than 30 years’ experience in business rescue and insolvency, Ruth specialises in helping SMEs and sole-traders in financial difficulty. Much of her work is referred via accountants and other professionals who value her holistic approach to clients’ insolvency crises.

The IPA is the only recognised professional bodies specialising solely in insolvency. It has nearly 2,000 members and promotes and maintains standards of performance and professional conduct amongst those engaged in insolvency practice. The Association currently licenses 600 Insolvency Practitioners in the UK.

Speaking about her new role, Ruth Duncan said: “The IPA plays a very important role in promoting best practice and professional conduct among those engaged in insolvency practice, as well as in enhancing the public’s knowledge and understanding of the work of insolvency practitioners.

“It is a great honour to be elected as president of the association and I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to engage with the IPA’s members and ensure that the association provides the support they need.”

Ruth began her career in the 1980s, after serving with the Insolvency Service, at Griffin & Partners in London. Prior to launching RNF Business Advisory in 2013, Ruth’s career took her to Levy Gee, Ernst & Whinney, Grant Thornton, Smith & Williamson and Baker Tilly, before starting her own firm Maxwell Davies in 2003.

Ruth concluded: “The very nature of our work means we are dealing with clients that need an ultra professional service. The role the IPA plays in standardising levels of expertise and in licensing approved practitioners is crucial to ensure companies and individuals that find themselves in difficulties have the assurance that they will be working with IPs that will give them the right advice.

“The IPA’s role is so important and one of my main objectives as President is to further promote the excellent work the Association does to set the highest possible standards of practice and become the Regulator of Choice.”

The IPA is the only one of the recognised professional bodies specialising solely in insolvency. Its principal aim is to promote and maintain standards of performance and professional conduct amongst those engaged in insolvency practice. It has approaching 2,000 individual and firm members and students and is the second largest, in terms of the number of licensed insolvency practitioners (IPs), of the professional bodies recognised for the purposes of authorising IPs under the Insolvency Act 1986. The IPA currently licenses 700 IPs in the UK.

You can find more details about the IPA on the association’s website: www.insolvency-practitioners.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sananur Meric .