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Lawyer of the Year WINNER: John Hutchinson of Pitmans Law


Dealmaking often requires inputs from various law professionals, but sometimes the importance of an individual’s performance during the year catches the eye.


The five contenders were:


• Will Axtel (Penningtons Manches)


• Emma Gibson (Shoosmiths)


• John Hutchinson (Pitmans Law)


• Hugh Jones (Osborne Clarke)


• Sara Valentine (Osborne Clarke)


The judges’ recognition


TVDA sponsor’s representative David Rolfe, partner of independently owned NVM Private Equity, described the winner of the prized ‘Lawyer of


the Year’ title as “... someone who the judges wanted to recognise for not only managing his law firm, but leading his long- standing clients through one of the biggest deals in the Thames Valley this year – the sale of Ridgeway Group.”


A long, successful relationship


John Hutchinson’s standout deal in 2016 was the sale of Ridgeway Group to Marshall Motor Holdings plc for £106.8 million. The deal was the third largest of its kind ever in the UK. Pitmans has worked with Ridgeway through the past 20 years, including through 13 acquisitions. This long trusted relationship culminated in a highly successful sale, which the Pitmans’ team turned around in just four months.


sponsored by:


Deserved praise for the winner


John Hutchinson was overseas and unable to attend. Pitmans deputy managing partner Suzanne Brooker commented: “I’ve worked with John for many years and he is one of the hardest working people that you will ever come across; his work ethic is extraordinary and his desire to deliver results


Management Team of the Year sponsored by: WINNER: Micro Focus


This award is the only TVDA accolade not presented to professional advisers, but to those people directly affected by a deal – the management teams of the companies involved.


The shortlist of finalists had five impressive management teams:


• Micro Focus – acquisitions led by Kevin Loosemore, Stephen Murdoch


• Opus Energy – sale led by Charlie Crossley-Cooke, Fred Esiri


• Property Software Group – sale led by Mark Goddard


• Ridgeway – sale led by John O’Hanlon, Dan Taylor, David Newman


• Xafinity – IPO led by Paul Cuff, Ben Bramhall


Achievements that impressed the judges


With PwC sponsoring this category again this year, partner Jason Wakelam announced the winner and presented the award.


“Our winner is a company founded in 1976; the very first to win the Queen’s Award for Industry purely for developing a software product. Since then it has become truly global and is on its way to becoming one of the largest infrastructure software companies in the world – Micro Focus.”


Building that winning team


Following several previous acquisitions, Micro Focus last year struck an $8.8 billion deal with HP Enterprise for its software division. It was one of the largest British


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2017


for his clients is second to none. It’s also about him working with and having total trust and confidence in the team that sits behind him, because clearly he can’t do all of the work and manage a law firm. He is always calm and collected, always wise, willing to listen, very fair, and genuinely a very good leader.”


takeover deals and positioned Micro Focus, under executive chairman Kevin Loosemore and CEO Stephen Murdoch, as a global force with $4.5b annual revenues.


“Kevin has built a really good team around him, of people who have ambition to go out and really achieve something,” explained CFO Mike Phillips.


During its acquisitions, Micro


Focus has always sought to improve its management abilities – utilising the best balance of the best talent available, added Phillips.


“Sometimes you find people in an organisation who are really very good, but they’re being pointed in the wrong direction, and we point them in the right direction to help us get where we want to be.”


businessmag.co.uk 17


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