Our People

Hilco's team of highly-experienced retail, corporate finance and business recovery specialists is supplemented by a retail support team covering all Human Resources, EPoS and Administration activities so that Hilco UK, alone, can provide a COMPLETE service to our clients with high partner level involvement in each case.

Paul McGowan
Chief Executive
paul.mcgowan@hilcouk.com

Paul McGowan is a founding partner of Hilco UK and has spent the last 12 years in the European retail and fashion markets, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Northern Ireland and spent two years within KPMG, London.

Moving into the fashion industry from KPMG, Paul has acted as Finance and Operations Director at Jacqmar plc and Leslie Fay (UK) Limited managing all aspects of finance, administration, supply chain and retail operations before becoming Chief Executive at Leslie Fay.

Paul joined Hilco UK as a Partner at the inception of our European business and is responsible for all operational aspects of the UK business.

Andrew Pepper
Chief Operating Officer
andrew.pepper@hilcouk.com

Andrew Pepper has been providing solutions to under performing businesses for over sixteen years.  He has advised Lenders and Directors on all aspects of corporate restructuring, from leading turnaround engagements to being appointed an administrator of a business.   Andrew is a Chartered Accountant and a former Partner of Kroll and BDO – he has held senior positions in KPMG and PwC during his career.

A specialist in the ABL, Retail and Leisure sectors, Andrew has led a number of advisory engagements on large and small businesses including Morgan Ltd, Unwins plc, “Slug & Lettuce”, and Collins & Aikman.  Andrew has also worked in an advisory capacity across Europe in cross jurisdictional ABL transactions in Germany, Poland and Romania.  Over the last few years, a large number of these engagements have involved businesses turning over in excess of £60 million per year.  Equally Andrew has personally dealt with many smaller businesses, where hands-on control has been essential.

Together with his experience in dealing with retail businesses turning over in excess of £1.2 billion, Andrew has found time to advise Trustees of a top five UK charity on the restructuring of its commercial activities. In 2006 Andrew was ranked 48 in Retail Week’s Top 100 Power List.

Robert Schneiderman
Partner
robert.schneiderman@hilcouk.com

Robert is a Chartered Accountant and Licenced insolvency Practitioner. After qualifying with KPMG, he was seconded to the recovery section at LloydsTSB, before joining a niche turnaround practice in central London. He has specialised in working with management teams to ensure that funds are used to optimal benefit, and that all technical requirements are met.

Robert has been active in this sector for a number of years, and is a member of both R3. He has experience in a number of sectors including retail, telecoms, transport and manufacturing. He has specialised in the area of turnaround finance, and assisted in launching the foremost website for this market.

Howard Gunn
European Chief Financial Officer
howard.gunn@hilcouk.com

Howard, having trained as an accountant at Peat, Marwick Mitchell & Co. in the late 1970s, established a small business involved in the trade and retail distribution of high security products. He then entered the computer industry and became Finance Director and Company Secretary of CHS Electronics Plc, one of the principal computer distribution companies in the UK, for over 10 years with responsibility for all finance functions, credit management and human resources.

Howard left the computer industry to join Hilco UK in September 2003 as the financial controller before becoming Chief Financial Officer in June 2005.

Bennoe Derksen
Vice President of Operations
bennoe.derksen@hilcouk.com

Bennoe is a seasoned retail executive with over twenty-five years experience in senior retail executive positions. Prior to joining Hilco in Canada, Bennoe was Senior VP with Woolworths Canada responsible for the major speciality divisions including Footlocker and Champs.

Bennoe's retail experience in buying, operations and administration have spanned Canada, United States and over the past years, the UK. His past five years at Hilco have been with major accounts including companies such as Federated, Toys R Us, Ciro Citterio and recently Allders.