After almost a decade as a partner at Deloitte, where he served as National Practice Leader of its restructuring and insolvency practice and Lead Partner for restructuring and insolvency in the Americas, Phil Reynolds is making a move. The restructuring veteran, who has spent more than 25 years advising businesses, boards and financial stakeholders through financial distress, has joined Teneo as Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Advisory in Canada, based in Toronto.

Teneo is a global CEO advisory firm with more than 1,800 employees working from 50+ markets around the world. It provides a wide range of advisory services, including strategic communications, investor relations, financial transactions and restructuring, management consulting, physical and cyber risk, organizational design, board and executive search, geopolitics and government affairs, corporate governance and ESG.

Reynolds' arrival is a significant step in Teneo's Canadian ambitions. The firm has been steadily building its presence in the country, leading with its Strategy & Communications practice, opening offices in Toronto in 2016, followed by Montreal and most recently expanding into Calgary. Now, with Reynolds leading the launch of Financial Advisory, Teneo is looking to make its mark on Canada's restructuring market and expects to rapidly expand its team.

But breaking into a market dominated by familiar names is no small task. We caught up with Reynolds to discuss the move, how he plans to build a practice that stands out, and what lies ahead for Canada's restructuring market.

1.  You spent roughly a decade as a partner at Deloitte and have been in the restructuring business for more than 25 years. What made you decide it was time for a change, and why Teneo?

I had the opportunity to step back and think about where our profession is heading and where I could make the greatest impact. Several things made Teneo the right choice.

2.  Teneo’s Strategy & Communications practice has been building its Canadian presence for a decade, expanding its office footprint and making several senior appointments along the way. Why is now the right time for Financial Advisory to enter the picture, specifically for Canadian restructuring and insolvency services?

Teneo’s Financial Advisory business has expanded globally in response to a series of interconnected macroeconomic forces that are reshaping capital allocation, profit margins, operational supply chains and consumer demand – interest rates, inflation, tariffs, sanctions, artificial intelligence and the disruption caused by global conflict, among others. There is simply a great deal of change and disruption underway around the world, and Canada is no different.

Here at home, the tariff environment is having a serious impact on businesses and their supply chains, investment in AI is reshaping cost structures and business models, and private credit has become an undeniable presence in the lending market, changing how distressed situations are financed and resolved. Many industries are feeling these pressures at the same time – there are, and will be, winners and losers.

Combine that backdrop with the strong foundation our Strategy & Communications practice has built in Canada and the scale of Teneo’s global Financial Advisory business – which has more than 600 professionals across major financial centres – the timing is right. We believe the market is ready for a new, independent alternative, and now is the moment for Teneo to show up. My role is to build that capability on the ground, starting with restructuring and insolvency, and to connect Canadian clients to the full breadth of the Teneo platform.

3.  What's your vision for the business? Where do you see the biggest opportunities, and what should the market expect from Teneo over the next few years?

We will lead with turnaround, restructuring and insolvency – the core of my own practice – and, over the coming years, build out a more fulsome suite of Financial Advisory offerings in Canada, drawing on capabilities Teneo already delivers globally, such as capital advisory, business transformation, and forensics and investigations.

The practice will be balanced between debtor-side and creditor-side work. We will advise companies, boards and management teams, as well as lenders, private credit providers, investors, regulators and other financial stakeholders, and we intend to compete for larger, complex mandates – both formal court-appointed roles and informal turnaround and advisory engagements.

Over the next few years, the market should expect a growing team of senior, experienced practitioners, with a number of additional hires anticipated in the coming months; integrated advice that brings the whole of Teneo to bear on a client's most critical issues; and a credible, independent alternative in Canadian restructuring.

4.  The Canadian restructuring market is a crowded one, with established players and longstanding relationships. What can Teneo offer that clients aren't already getting elsewhere?

Let me start by saying that there are some excellent firms in Canada’s restructuring and insolvency market, and they have earned their recognition and their networks. We bring competing skill sets, no doubt, but our offering is different in several respects:

5.  You've worked through several economic cycles over your career. How does the current environment compare, and where are you seeing the most pressure? Are there particular sectors or types of mandates you expect to generate more restructuring activity over the next 12 to 18 months?

Compared with prior Canadian down-cycles – the 1990–1992 structural debt crisis, the 2008–2009 Global Financial Crisis and the 2015–2016 oil patch downturn – today’s environment is not a sudden, systemic credit freeze or a single-commodity shock. It is more akin to a “slow-burn” margin squeeze, driven by sustained higher borrowing costs, post-pandemic liquidity hangovers, sticky wage and input costs, and structural real estate repricing, now compounded by tariff uncertainty and related and required leverage.

After a prolonged period of “extend and pretend,” lenders appear to be moving more towards  enforcement, increasingly through court-appointed receiverships and sale processes rather than lengthy CCAA reorganizations, unless a clear DIP financing path exists. In the mid-market, BIA Division I proposals have become the primary tool to compromise debt and renegotiate onerous leases. And the prevalence of private credit has introduced complex, multi-tranche capital structures and aggressive intercreditor dynamics that make consensual out-of-court workouts harder to achieve.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, we expect continued pressure in real estate development and construction (particularly in Ontario and British Columbia), forestry, pulp and paper, aviation, hospitality, leveraged technology, and other tariff-exposed manufacturers and supply chains. On the mandate side, we anticipate continued receiverships and asset realizations, BIA proposals for the mid-market, selective CCAA proceedings for larger corporates, a growing need for lender-side and intercreditor advisory in private credit structures and a higher rate of adoption for transformational turnaround services.

6.  Fast-forward three years. What would make you look back on this move and say it was the right decision? What does success look like, both for you personally and for Teneo's Canadian restructuring practice?

Success will be measured in three ways, and they apply equally to the firm and to me personally:

If, three years from now, we have built a respected and growing practice with a strong culture, and clients turn to us when it matters most, it will be successful.