EngagedBT Team – Mark Townsend
Executive Management
Mark is a seasoned Corporate and Business Banking professional with over 30 years of local and international Banking experience. He is a Certified Associate of the Institute of Bankers in South Africa CAIB (SA) and an Affiliate Member of the London Institute of Risk Management.
In his early career, Mark held various senior roles in small and large commercial Banking institutions in South Africa having secured his first senior role at the age of 26. His keen interest in corporate funding of all sizes and structures and his entrepreneurial approach to business in general, fostered a unique approach to funding solutions allowing him to differentiate himself from other Bankers in the industry.
In 2005 Mark emigrated to the UK, immediately securing a role in Barclays Corporate Banking. The onset of the global financial crises gave rise to significant businesses in distress resulting in Mark’s selection to join the Bank’s Restructuring Division, a division tasked with helping financially distressed customers of the Bank.
Mark spent almost nine years covering the London and Eastern region of the Business, Corporate and International Wealth portfolio across all sectors of the economy. As a senior member of his team, Mark worked closely with all of the Bank’s panel Advisory and Legal firms tasked with supporting agreed turnaround strategies from conception to completion and boasted a 95% turnaround success rate as well as consistently scoring one of the highest customer feedback scores in his team.
In furthering his passion for commerce and in order to develop more company side hands-on experience in Business Turnaround, Mark left Barclays in mid-2017 to help a high-end furniture manufacturer and retailer with production facilities in London and Portugal. He uncovered a significant fraud in Portugal upon starting this assignment and lead a significant corporate, legal and financial restructure of this operation while managing numerous other operational and financial challenges in the London business.
Once this assignment was completed, Mark contracted to the Royal Bank of Scotland on a large-scale high-profile remediation project in their Global Restructuring Division. This gave him unique insight into the Bank’s distressed portfolio while using his vast Corporate Banking and Restructuring experience to successfully complete this 2-year assignment.
Mark has since returned to South Africa in 2020, a long-term goal of his made possible once both his sons had flown the proverbial nest. He has furthered his passion for Business Turnaround and has now become a senior member of the Engaged Business Turnaround Group
Mark has vast experience with numerous businesses locally and internationally through all stages of the trading cycle. He has detailed company-side and bank-side experience on how to manage difficult situations and has vast experience in managing key stakeholders and creditors.