Forward Thinking - A research and technical conference presented by the Insolvency Service

Dr Kayode Akintola is a barrister and assistant professor of Law with experience in commercial matters whose research, teaching and consultancy outputs examine the financing of companies, secured transactions regimes as well as the treatment of creditors and other outcomes in corporate insolvency.

Dr Sofia Ellina is a qualified lawyer in Cyprus (Member of the Cyprus Bar Association) and currently a Lecturer in Law at Lancaster University.  She has assisted the Insolvency Service as a Senior Research Associate.  Her published studies focus on corporate insolvency procedures in the UK and Cyprus.

David Milman is a Professor of Law at Lancaster University.  He is a Professorial Associate at Exchange Chambers.  His specialisms lie within Corporate Law and Insolvency Law.  He is a co-author of Sweet and Maxwell's Annotated Guide to Insolvency Legislation.  He was a founder editor of the Bankruptcy and Personal Insolvency Reports and the General Editor of Insolvency Intelligence up to 2021.

Dr Susan Morgan has nearly 40 years in insolvency with experience as a trained accountant working in private practise and in various commercial positions.  This includes 12 years with the Insolvency Service where she was the author of the first successful 15 year disqualification report, 7 years as an inspector for the Joint Insolvency Monitoring Unit, and 14 years within a Big Four firm.  She set up her own consultancy in 2015.  Her MSC dissertation on the Causes of Early Failures in Individual Voluntary Arrangements was subsequently published as an occasional paper, and she has authored and contributed to a number of articles for various publications.

Professor Peter Walton is a Professor of Insolvency Law who has taught at the University of Wolverhampton for over 30 years.  Widely published, his work has been cited in court both at home and abroad, including by the UK Supreme Court.  He has completed various research projects including those for the UK Government and the UK insolvency trade and professional bodies.

Inga West is a specialist restructuring and insolvency lawyer.  Chair of the Insolvency Lawyers' Association Technical Committee, member of the ad hoc experts’ group to the Insolvency Service, and a distinguished practitioner member of the Commercial Law Centre at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Alfonso Nocilla has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, since 2018.  He has broad interests in commercial law, with particular emphasis on insolvency and restructuring.  His research in these areas is methodologically diverse, incorporating empirical and comparative approaches, and has been cited widely, including by the Supreme Court of Canada.  Prior to joining Western, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Florence for the E.U.-funded project "Contractualised Distress Resolution in the Shadow of the Law", which informed the new European Restructuring Directive.  He holds a PhD in corporate insolvency law from UCL and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2012. 

Dr Riz Mokal is a barrister whose practice extends to all aspects of domestic and cross-border insolvency, restructuring, bank resolution, and trust law, with a particular focus on matters involving complex policy considerations. He has a doctorate from University College London, where he held the Chair of Law and Legal Theory.  Among his many achievements, he served as Senior Counsel to the World Bank and Head of the Bank’s Global Initiative on Insolvency and Creditor/Debtor Regimes, he worked with the governments of 20 countries, and was leader of the World Bank’s delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Dr Bolanle Adebola is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Reading. She has broad interests in international commercial law, with particular interest in debt and corporate insolvency law at national and international levels. Bolanle engages actively in capacity building and the development of modern corporate and commercial law practices in emerging markets. She established the Commercial Law Research Network Nigeria (CLRNN) funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to responds to the challenges that emerging economies like Nigeria face in designing commercial laws that fit both their realities and the interconnected global systems. She sits on executive committees of Recognised Professional Bodies in Nigeria and is a member of several national and international professional bodies.

Dr Stephen Baister is a former solicitor and licensed insolvency practitioner who took an appointment as a registrar in bankruptcy of the High Court, ultimately serving as chief registrar.  At present a non-executive director of Manolete Partners plc, a consultant at Wedlake Bell LLP and a mediator at 3 Stone Buildings, he continues to sit as a deputy insolvency and companies court judge. He is honorary president of the Chartered Institute of Credit Managers.  As an author/contributor he has written on insolvency for a wide range of books and journals.

Professor Rebecca Parry is a Co-Director of the Centre for Business and Insolvency Law, Nottingham Trent University, who has written widely on aspects of domestic and international insolvency laws.  She has a particular recent interest in the intersection between technology and law and vulnerabilities arising from the provision of public services by private companies.