Liam Bastick has joined Corality as a Director, heading up the Melbourne office. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, with over two decades experience in modelling and corporate finance.
Why have you decided to join Corality?
That’s an answer with two parts.
Having spent the past three and a half years training many finance professionals in modelling and corporate finance, I thought it was time to get my hands dirty once more. There’s a lot of prospective clients seeking experienced modellers and we’re few and far between. It seemed perfect timing to pitch my hat into the ring again.
With regards to my choice of employer, I was looking for a proven, nimble company, highly regarded in the market place for its flexible yet robust approach to model audits, model builds and training. There aren’t many companies that can check all of those boxes and in Corality I found a perfect fit.
Where have you worked previously?
I have worked in corporate finance for the UK Post Office and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as well as a service provider for Ernst & Young and BPM Financial Modelling, amongst others. I still work for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) also, providing technical training and facilitation to students and qualified accountants alike, looking to enhance their technical knowledge. I’ve also been lucky with being able to work in some great locations (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Switzerland and the UK amongst others).
What is the most challenging project you have ever worked on?
A few years ago, I was heavily involved in the acquisition of a German company for a UK entity. It was originally intended to be a small stake acquisition, but competitor analysis determined it had to be an “all or nothing” buy, which to be honest, we weren’t quite prepared for initially.
The target company comprised of a very complicated structure of 26 partnerships, based all over Europe. We needed to get the buy-in (and the buy-out!) of all stakeholders, which I was involved in. Given their locations we needed to understand the accounting practices of several European countries and understand German consolidation accounting (no International Financial Reporting Standards back then). Not only that, but German tax law was about to change which meant the buy-out had to be undertaken within three months of identifying the target or else the acquisition price would have to double.
Just in case that wasn’t difficult enough, this all needed to be ratified by both the German and British governments before the imminent deadline. This meant dealing with not only accounting structures, tax advisers, mixer companies and lenders, we also had to cover off political and economic issues. Fun, fun, fun!
What are your plans for Corality Melbourne?
In a nutshell, I want it to be a roaring success.
Corality has made its well-regarded name for model audits, but I want to push the envelope further. I want the company to be as highly recognised in Victoria as it is elsewhere, but not just for its flexible and robust reviews. I’m planning to exceed our client expectations for model building / advisory work and training as well.
Do you have any hidden talents?
Although I am technically a mathematician, I actually forged a part-time “career” as a professional sports journalist whilst I lived in the UK. I used to work in the English Premier League (football) and had the good fortune to interview the likes of David Beckham and Alex Ferguson, amongst others. In particular, I remember thinking while I was interviewing David Beckham that he had probably earned my annual salary in the time it had taken him to respond.
So my hidden talent is being able to hide going green with envy in the proximity of more successful people.
