Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting Names Pat McCormick Head of Its National Financial Leadership Solutions Group.

NEW YORK -- Veteran Consulting Professional to Lead Senior Team of Consultants with Expertise in Improving Performance and Mitigating Risk in Finance Organizations

Veteran consulting professional Patrick McCormick has been named head of the Financial Leadership Solutions group by Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting. Mr. McCormick, who has more than 25 years of consulting and business management experience, will lead a national team formed around senior professionals with deep expertise in helping to improve companies' financial management capabilities.

"Whether the company is in a rapidly changing industry, on an acquisitive path, underperforming, contemplating new strategies or systems, or spun out of a larger entity, the operations and management of its finance organization can play a key role in its ability to successfully navigate change, minimize risk and maximize value," said Mr. McCormick. "With our broad industry experience and deep financial management skills, we have worked with companies of all dimensions and sizes - from middle market organizations to global enterprises - to successfully enhance their financial management infrastructure and overall performance as well as create and sustain value.

"When assessing the finance organization, it's not just about cutting costs or ensuring regulatory compliance," he added. "It's about taking a fresh look at how finance works, how information flows and how that information is driving decisions and supporting the business's overall goals. It's about ensuring the proper skill sets are in place, having the right tools at hand, examining what a company really needs and looking beyond finance to see the big picture."

Tom Elsenbrook, head of Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, added: "For the past two years, we've been building our team to deal with the key issues facing companies today - selecting and attracting among the most experienced, dynamic and talented finance leaders in the consulting industry. Their collaborative, objective, hands-on and process-driven work style are in keeping with what corporate finance executives, investors and audit committee members need today. We're excited that, under Pat's guiding hand, we are building something different here with a team that draws from a legacy of world-class finance talent combined with real-time momentum to drive business value."

For Mr. McCormick, being part of a privately held and owner-operated consultancy enables Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting to be free from the conflicts of interest facing major accounting firms and the earnings per share focus driving publicly owned consulting firms.

"Our focus is on bringing the most relevant and resourceful people to serve our clients - not just to meet revenue targets," he said. "We put the needs of our clients first, and serve organizations with an entirely different model of service. Instead of deploying legions of junior consultants for on-the-job training paid by our clients, we bring a compact team of seasoned professionals who are able to quickly assess a client's needs, identify opportunities for improvement and areas of risk. We then collaborate with the company's in-house professionals to quickly put in place practical solutions that can be sustained over the long term. We are interested in successful operations, not merely successful 'implementations'."

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting's Financial Leadership Solutions practice works with corporate management, boards of directors and audit committees providing services including:

--Financial Strategy, Structures and Organizational Assessment - Establishing the best financial management strategy for the company for the mid to long term, and establishing the structure, hiring and retention practices to attract and retain the best people for the roles in financial management of the enterprise.

--Finance Business Intelligence - Addressing and delivering on the information a company needs to run the business. A&M focuses on creating and delivering relevant, reliable and readily available information that helps to create and sustain value and to compel management action.

--Enhancing Operational Performance - Defining business practices, processes and structures to accomplish the work of finance effectively and efficiently. A&M focuses on creating economy of scale and economy of intellect, helping clients to improve on the status quo or work to establish new organizational frameworks, such as shared services or outsourcing.

--Accounting Remediation - Supporting companies with executing near-term fixes to serious deficiencies in their accounting processes and systems to get to the bottom of key economic and accounting issues. A&M enables finance organizations to fix, prepare and present meaningful financial information to key stakeholders.

Over the course of his career, Mr. McCormick has consulted across a variety of industry sectors including pharmaceuticals, automotive, consumer products, industrial products, consumer and business services, property and casualty insurance, life insurance, banks, real estate development, publishing, engineering and construction, and professional services. Prior to joining A&M in 2005, he served as the COO and CFO of a large multifamily and office real estate development firm. Before that, he was the co-managing partner, responsible for Andersen's Business Consulting Finance Business Solutions practice in the North America and Europe.

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, LLC is comprised of a dedicated team of senior consulting specialists who deliver functional, process and technology skills to corporate management. Building on Alvarez & Marsal's core operational and problem-solving heritage, the team helps to improve the business processes and performance of healthy as well as underperforming companies. Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting services include: strategy and corporate solutions, information technology solutions, finance solutions, human resource solutions, supply chain solutions, customer and channel solutions, and outsourcing advisory services.

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, LLC is a division of Alvarez & Marsal, a global professional services firm that excels in problem solving and value creation for businesses around the world. Founded in 1983, the firm's network of seasoned professionals in locations across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America provide services including turnaround and restructuring advisory, crisis and interim management, performance improvement, creditor advisory, corporate finance, transaction advisory, dispute analysis and forensics, tax advisory, real estate advisory and business consulting.

For more information, visit www.alvarezandmarsal.com. Contact: chief marketing officer Rebecca Baker at [phone], or e-mail [e-mail].