Ted Gavin Shares His Journey & Philosophy Behind Founding Leading Turnaround & Restructuring Firm Gavin/Solmonese

In times of financial distress, companies have to avail themselves of every opportunity to avoid going under, to avoid wasting the effort and resources invested by its founders, as well as preserving jobs and value. Oftentimes, this distress is caused by deficiencies in the business’ structure or operations. Turnaround and restructuring advisors seek to save businesses by identifying problems and working with the client to make changes to how the business is run, including its financial and operational aspects. 

Edward ‘Ted’ Gavin, CTP, NCPM, Managing Director and Founding Partner of Gavin/Solmonese, shares that he was first exposed to turnaround and restructuring when he worked as a manager at a company that ended up in distress with its lender. He became part of the team that worked with the turnaround and restructuring firm to implement the recommended changes. There, he got a taste of the industry and saw the benefits it provided to distressed companies. 

“I remember what it's like to be an employee at their desk, not knowing what was wrong, and seeing teams of auditors crawling through the filing cabinets,” Gavin says. “I knew that something was wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. Then, I was tasked to help them fix it and restore the company to viability. Because of this, I believe I have a very personal connection to the work that we do.” 

Gavin later joined the same turnaround and restructuring firm and, after around a decade, bought it and merged it into Gavin/Solmonese, which he co-founded with Joe Solmonese, an experienced executive and political campaign advisor. 

Prior to becoming a turnaround and restructuring professional, Gavin’s background was in music and IT. While disparate fields, both have an influence on how he conducts business today. As an IT-focused businessperson, Gavin spoke the differing languages within corporate cultures, such as finance, engineering, and technology. This allowed him to navigate the various silos and levels of a company and gather enough data to come up with a solid analysis and propose expert solutions.  

“Music is making order from chaos, and that is very much what turnaround and restructuring crisis management is,” he adds “The client is a company that may not know how they're going to pay their employees in a few days. We show up and have to very quickly understand what's happening at an organic level and come up with a plan that provides for the company's survival. I started my own firm because I wanted to combine healthy company work with distressed company work, and I also wanted to live my values. We do a lot of pro bono work and philanthropic support in the firm, alongside strategic consulting, profit enhancement, and management consulting – the type of work that my partner, Joe Solmonese, did.” 

From 2018 to 2019, Gavin was the president of the American Bankruptcy Institute, recognizing his skill and expertise as a restructuring professional. During his term, Gavin created a task force to address problems in the bankruptcy code that negatively impacted veterans and service members. This contributed to the passage of the HAVEN Act, which corrected provisions that made it difficult for disabled veterans to avail themselves of a fresh start via Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code. 

According to Gavin, his upbringing resulted in his bias towards helping others and doing good in the world, which is why he applies a people-centric ethos in running the firm. 

“On the best of days, our work saves people's jobs. One of my mentors said that there’s no higher lay calling than that, outside of medicine,” Gavin says. “But, even on days that aren't the best, when a company can't be saved and has to be sold or taken through a bankruptcy process, it’s important to remember that there are people on the other end of every conversation and on the other end of every transaction. The minute you forget that these are people that have their own needs and their own concerns, you start to move further and further away from the likelihood of successful outcomes. Because, at the end of the day, you need these employees, creditors, vendors, and stakeholders. If they feel that you don't respect them or that you are insensitive to the issues that are important to them, then you're no longer in a cooperative process.”