Skip to main content

Available 7 days of the week.

We are here to help.

References and testimonials.

Aubrey Friedman - Owner of Master Pressings and Engineering

Aubrey FriedmanMasterpressings

Master Pressings was started 35 years ago and is a specialist industrial pressing concern. We have four lines of business: Bespoke Metal Pressing & Stamping, Hydraulic Deep Drawing, Standard & Non standard Speciality Washers and Die & Tool making services. It supplies most of the fastener and engineering support services businesses in SA. It employs just less than 30 people, many of whom have worked there for decades.

Thoughts

Disasters often come disguised and wrapped in a combination of smaller issues. I am no longer a young man and required kidney dialysis for seven years and I could not provide the oversight I once had. Fires, civil unrest, urban decay, mismanagement and Chinese imports brought us to our knees.
The day I had my kidney transplant I was informed that a manager was responsible for out-standing VAT, unpaid Provident funds and I faced not only financial ruin but imprisonment.
It took 3 months for Ivan to relocate the business, restructure the management team, source funding, and triple our monthly production, without a single one of my loyal staff losing their livelihood. I know of no other person capable of what Ivan is, from negotiating with my bankers, dealing with litigating attorneys, winning back clients, implementing new operational processes, trading with suppliers in China, reassuring creditors, instructing attorneys and still having time to have a laugh.
What impressed me most was his ability to understand our crisis in its entirety, prioritise, act decisively and co-ordinate and demand delivery.
Ivan has had a profound impact on my life and of all those employed here.


Hennie Buys - Owner of Wolf Fabrication and Engineering

Hennie BuysWolf

Wolf provides welding, boilermaker, engineering and fabrication services to the Mining, Construction, Petro-chemical, Automotive, Rail-freight & Waste management industries across Africa. Wolf specialises in specialist Earthmoving Bucket and Equipment. Visit Wolf here.

Thoughts

I cannot say enough about Jessica and Ivan who saved my business and did so much for me. After months of costs on auditors, consultants, lawyers I was exactly as I had started the year, actually worse off. Rescue practitioners were demanding deposits just to talk to me! I have never been so alone. Vultures!
Everything changed when I started working with Ivan and Jessica, and now as I look back EVERY promise they made they kept.
Jessica was absolutely brilliant, and sorted tax, SARS, VAT and all my banking and accounting issues where other auditors had all failed.
My business has finished with rescue, each and every Creditor was repaid in FULL, we even had to hire new staff in the middle of our business rescue! That's how well it went.
What is more they did not charge me a cent until we had turned the business around.
Not only did I escape liquidation, but now my business projections for revenue is triple for the previous year and I will make more profit than I have ever made. !


Andy Cutter - ex Argon Business Solutions, now Stratus Business Systems

Andy Cutter

Andy was the founder and sole shareholder of Argon Business Solutions an ERP implementer that specialised in SAGE 3x solutions, which he has now sold to Parity a highly successful SAGE 3x business partner. Andy has now specialised in Qlikview data management solutions via a new focused and specialist entity Stratus Business Solutions .

Thoughts

Ivan was referred to me through Werkmans attorneys and, as they inferred, turned out to be much more than a Business Rescue Practitioner. He saw no reason to take us into business rescue and instead worked with us on a turnaround which has seen us regain focus on what we are good at, and allowed us to craft a business which suits our strategic goals. Where others saw a crisis, Ivan saw an opportunity and we are in a much better space than if we had engaged with a typical rescue practitioner.
I highly recommend Ivan for his business acumen, his integrity and his ability to see opportunity where nobody else does. Ivan was always available to us no matter what time of day or day of the week. His incredibly wide range of skills make him indispensable to any business having issues and I would strongly recommend his services.


Nico Jacobs - McDonald's Chief Operating officer & Entrepreneur

Nico Jacobs

Nico oversees McDonald’s SA company owned restaurant chain, their Franchising, Operations, IT and Business Development departments. Over the past 15 years, Nico has worked in leadership roles across different industries, prior to the food service industry he worked in banking and was the Managing Exec for Small Business at Barclays/ABSA.

Thoughts

Ivan was a key member of my team in achieving remarkable things in our business. His ability to navigate through many different types of relationships and conversations in a single day is impressive. He is quite at home working with people right across the business from Sales and Marketing, IT, Call Centres and Operations to Finance and Actuarial. This reflects his deep understanding of business and explains why he is so useful in any Rescue or Turnarounds. He'll add value in any situation in which he finds himself.
It's also pleasing to see Nafeesa, Noluthando and Jessica, all of whom I met and worked with years ago, continuing their powerful collaboration.


Coenraad de Jager - Executive GM of Commercial, Personal & Distribution at Mutual & Federal

Coenraad de Jager

Coenraad manages a portfolio in excess of R10 Billion. Prior to Mutual & Federal he was the Head Consultant on short-term insurance at Towers Watson. He has held other senior roles at Sanlam Individual Life, Volkskas Pension Services, Absa Insurance Company. Coenraad is a mathematician.

Thoughts

Ivan is someone who knows how to apply his mind and to think independently, but what struck me when he took over the failing scheme was the amount of time he invested in people, all of whom grew a tremendous amount with him. His adaptability in being able to do the pricing on an insurance portfolio and then in the same day support managers when having difficult conversations with our business partners was testament to his commitment to our business, which he had a big impact upon. 5 years of loses were turned around within 9 months.


Prof Gerhard Coetzee - Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP- Washington, DC

Gerhard Coetzee

Before joining CGAP at the World Bank, he was the Head of Inclusive Banking Strategic Initiatives at Absa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Banking in Africa and Extraordinary Professor in Agricultural Economics (responsible for Agricultural and Rural Finance) at the University of Pretoria.

Thoughts

As an academic I appreciate people who can both understand detail in a refined and subtle sense, as well as roll up their sleeves and get things done, showing commitment and perseverance. Although Ivan and Noluthando, can be tough, they are always fair and set very high standards for themselves, always leading by example. These are the qualities that any struggling business, especially those in financial distress badly need. A reflection on the quality of their work is the fact that we won a prestigious award for innovation for the part of the work we delivered together.


LeRoy Munetsi - Managing Director of Standard Trust Limited

Leroy Munetsi

Leroy has held a number of executive level positions including Executive Head for Business Insurance at Telesure (a leading direct short term and life insurer), Executive for Africa & New Markets at Mutual & Federal (a leading traditional short term insurer), and Chief Operating Officer of Absa Life (a leading bancassurer).

Thoughts

I remember quite clearly just how alternative and different Ivan's thinking can be, and his mantra of "Noble Purpose" reflects this. He always insisted that as insurers, what we did was not pay claims, but save jobs at our client's companies and in so doing make a powerful contribution to our communities and the country, something to be proud of. Senior staff, not far from retirement, admitted to never seeing their job in such a light. In my opinion, being able to connect the heart to the hands to the mind is what counts, and is often lacking in businesses attempting to transform themselves.


Peter Todd - CEO and Entrepreneur

Peter Todd

President of Insurance Institute of South Africa, former CEO of various global insurance brands and now founder of the industry innovative and game-changing - Repair Solutions

Thoughts

As a leader of a business you need to have people that can cut through all the politics and corp-speak, and identify the real cause at the heart of any business issue, and then propose practical well thought out solutions. I suppose this is why I have had many hours of insightful and original thinking with Ivan on how Insurance should change, based on his most simple view, "How do I want insurance to work for me?" His unconventional thinking generates very conventional bottom-line value.


Philip Bowkley - Global Head of Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) at Barclays - London

Philip has global accountability for Corporate Banking client coverage of insurance, specialty finance, funds, asset managers and FinTech companies.

Thoughts

I would work with Ivan and his team again, without hesitation. I know I'd have the commitment to my business that it would need. This would be an extremely capable addition that would only make my business stronger. I can safely say that you will not find better anywhere in the world, when you consider ability, attitude, values, education and experience. Any financially distressed firm would do well to have Ivan fighting in their corner.