R3 Member Spotlight: Johnny Abraham

Johnny is a Chartered Accountant with over 23 years of experience specialising in business recovery and asset-based lending. He founded J9 Advisory in 2014, is a UK Board Director of the TMA, and R3 Fellow member. Johnny is listed in the Credit Strategy Magazine TRI300, which recognises those responsible for the progression of industry standards, and inspiring excellence across the UK turnaround, rescue and insolvency profession.

What made you decide to pursue a career in business recovery?

Whilst still in school at the young age of 17, I attend a presentation by PwC about their school leaver scheme. I was particularly interested to learn that the Business Recovery Services Team offers two school leavers each year the opportunity to gain the AAT qualification and then progress to the ACA.

Recognising this as an exciting prospect given I was not really set on going down the university route, and after hearing the kind of work the BRS team undertook, which was far more appealing than what would spring to mind when thinking about accountancy, I applied for work experience within the team, which I went onto complete in my summer holidays and I thoroughly enjoyed.

This experience solidified my decision to pursue the "work, learn and earn" route instead of attending university and following my work experience, I was delighted to receive an unconditional offer to join the firm as part of their school leaver program at the age of 18, and that is where my career began.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your current role?

The most fulfilling aspect of my role is resolving challenges faced by directors. Whether it's recovering debt to improve their cash flow or guiding businesses to turnround distressed situations or to restructure in order to save jobs and enable future success; these outcomes are incredibly rewarding.

What do you consider to be your biggest achievement to date?

I would say my biggest achievement to date, is reaching the 10 Year Anniversary milestone of my business J9 Advisory in 2024, for which I have to thank all of the people who have supported me in my career over the years.

As part of the 10-year celebrations, and further to me beating cancer in late 2023, I have gone on to raise over £135,000 for local charities, and again, there are countless people who have generously donated that I need to thank, without whom this would not have been possible.

We really do have an amazing business community in Yorkshire and beyond, and I really do feel lucky to be a part of it.

What does being an R3 Fellow mean to you and how has it shaped your involvement in the profession?

Not many will know this now, but I actually started the regional R3 New Professionals network in Leeds back in the mid-2000s when I was at PwC. This was done with the support of a director who was involved with R3 and was very supportive. This then went on to be rolled out to other regions.

Following that, I served on the R3 Yorkshire Regional Committee for a number of years and went on to become a Fellow member.

The designation of "Fellow Member" naturally brings a certain level of credibility, as it immediately indicates a significant period of involvement and commitment.

Since my time with R3, my engagement in the industry has continued to evolve. I joined the UK Board of the Turnaround Management Association in 2022 and am set to become the UK President in 2026.

Is there a piece of advice you wish you’d been given at the start of your career?

Given the diverse range of industries that we work alongside, together with our own legal and technical related information that we must possess, it's unrealistic to expect ourselves to have all the answers immediately. We are all only human after all.

There is absolutely nothing wrong when in doubt, with saying, "I'm not 100% sure about that. Let me come back to you shortly”.

It's always better provide a delayed but accurate response, rather than feeling pressured to give an immediate but incorrect answer that could lead to negative consequences.

There is no failing in acknowledging when you need to take a step back to ensure you provide the right advice.

How has the profession changed since you joined it?

Things have changed a lot since 2001!

While there have been positive developments, particularly in terms of regulation and an effort towards improving public perception of the sector, some changes in my view have not had such a positive effect. For instance, the evolution in how banks connect advisory firms with distressed businesses seems to have inadvertently disadvantaged clients.

Although the current, more encouraging approach allows directors more autonomy in seeking advice, it often results in advisors having less time to develop robust turnaround strategies and explore restructuring options.

Furthermore, banks' growing emphasis on impartiality, often by providing multiple firm options or directing clients to online resources, can unfortunately lead to the selection of less suitable advisors.

We have also seen a shift from the previous smaller number of firms, but with larger teams, to now having a larger number of firms, but with smaller teams.

What challenges do you see for the restructuring, turnaround and insolvency profession in the future?

Staffing is going to be the biggest challenge we have coming up and I think we are already seeing experience gaps in the profession due to a number of people leaving the profession either through retirement, or just leaving the profession. This coupled with reduced recruitment of trainees over the years leads me to believe we may encounter some difficulties moving forward.

We work in what can be at times a very stressful and intense profession, working long and late hours and dealing with difficult situations. As a profession we also need to ensure that we are not only recruiting the right people, but that we are also retaining them and rewarding them accordingly, as good people are hard to find.

I also believe it's crucial for us to actively promote our successes. Given that the media often highlights negative news like job losses, it's important that we make a concerted effort to raise awareness of the positive contributions we make.

Furthermore, we should do everything possible to ensure our profession is portrayed accurately and favourably. I've noticed instances where articles have presented a skewed perspective by omitting important context, seemingly for sensationalism. This negatively impacts our profession's reputation, and we must be proactive in preventing such occurrences or strongly defending our position when they do happen.

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