Our latest edition of Staff Spotlight shines a light on Evan Norvill, a manager at Lexington who joined us last summer.
He achieved his ACA qualification with Deloitte, where he previously worked in its audit practice, working with large listed and large private equity backed clients.
What is your specialism?
I joined Lexington in July last year from the external audit team at Deloitte, where I qualified as a chartered accountant. In the period since joining Lexington, I’ve been fortunate to work on a wide range of projects, primarily sell side mandates and growth capital advisory, across various industries such as technology, distribution, medical, construction, logistics and retail.
I’ve particularly enjoyed working with technology and fast growth businesses to support them with an exit or through their next stage of growth. It’s really exciting working with ambitious entrepreneurs and unlocking growth, which can have a tangible benefit to the wider Welsh economy. Being Welsh born and bred, this is important to me.
How have your first six months at Lexington been?
I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone! The entire team and culture are amazing, which has enabled me to settle in really quickly. As a firm, we do a significant amount together in addition to our core corporate finance work, which means that we are a close-knit group.
I have also thoroughly enjoyed the transition to corporate finance – the advisory projects that we work on with our clients are highly commercial and it’s great to be able to make a real difference to businesses.
Charity and community are also very important to us at Lexington and, since joining the firm, I’ve been lucky enough to hike Snowdon and take part in a charity football tournament in support of Ty Hafan, in addition to supporting a local FoodCycle project at Christmas.
Why did you choose Lexington?
From my very first meeting with the team, I knew straight away that Lexington would be a great fit. Lexington has a great reputation in the marketplace and recent successes at the Wales Dealmaker and Fast Growth 50 awards are testament to both the quality of deals and clients that the firm works with.
Lexington being part of the global Eaton Square network was also a key factor, as I appreciate the importance to our clients of us being able to access the global markets and have a truly international offering. It’s great that we have already completed a number of cross-border transactions through the network, meaning we have a close working relationship with our global partners. The experience I have from my previous role of working with large listed and sizeable private-equity backed global businesses on cross-border engagements has prepared me well to support our clients on these types of deals.
What is a typical day for you?
I know it’s a cliché, but my days can vary significantly from one to the next, but that’s what I love about the role. Currently I am busy writing marketing materials for a company that we are supporting on a sell-side advisory project, but in the coming weeks I will be managing discussions with the prospective buyers and liaising with other advisors and due diligence providers. I work closely with the directors to progress our deals and ensure that we are pre-empting and managing future challenges in the process. In addition, I provide support to our trainees, and it’s extremely rewarding to share my experience.
In addition to these core responsibilities, I manage our work experience programme, head up our new healthcare M&A report, and work closely with director, Sinead, to support business development.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I particularly enjoy advising clients on commercial transactions and future strategy as well as the business development side of my role, which is all about establishing and deepening relationships with clients and other advisors.
I also enjoy the freedom of being part of such an entrepreneurial and dynamic organisation, which allows us to be highly responsive to our clients’ needs.
What would you say is your perfect weekend?
Now that my house renovation is largely finished, I have started playing golf (much to my girlfriend’s despair) so, in recent weeks, I have spent a chunk of my weekends either at the range or on the course with my friends. I also make sure to spend time with family and friends, in addition to travelling where possible. I have been lucky enough to secure tickets to the Paris Olympics in the summer, which I am very much looking forward to.
