Bill Patterson, CTP, is a principal with Bridgepoint Consulting LLC in Austin, Texas. He has 30 years of financial experience, having spent 10 years with Big Four firms and served as CFO and consulted with a number of early-stage and mid-market companies.

Patterson has extensive transaction experience, particularly in bankruptcy and turnaround situations. In addition, he has led companies through Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and risk abatement. During his career, he has managed and overseen corporate operations, vendors, and consulting projects in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific Rim. Patterson holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and, in addition to being a CTP, is a CPA and a CIRA.

Q: How did you gravitate into turnaround/restructuring work?

PATTERSON: I graduated from Baylor in 1985, and worked in the audit division of Price Waterhouse for three years. At the time, the price of oil was about $25 per barrel. By August 1986, the price had fallen to about $10 a barrel. Combined with the Tax Reform Act in 1986 and the savings and loan debacle in Texas, business failures were prevalent and lending credit was in high demand.

Then, in 1988, I joined the Dispute Analysis/Corporate Recovery practice at Price Waterhouse and quickly moved into restructuring/workout/bankruptcy. The decline of the real estate and energy industries in Texas in the ‘80s that culminated in all the bank failures was the driver behind my decision to get involved with this kind of work. I enjoyed the triage and the crisis environment and helping clients and companies through situations like that—helping to resolve conflicts and come up with ideas and creating alternatives to help companies and management teams work through those situations.

The experiences during the ensuing five years gained me a lifetime of experience I continue to draw from even today. I spent my time during the upcoming years working for NationsBank’s takeover of FirstRepublic Bank in Dallas and working on behalf of Western Federal Savings & Loan in Phoenix and Federal Land Bank in Jackson, Mississippi. There were also my experiences with New Hampshire banking failures and takeover by First NH Bank and California banking issues. It was great work for a kid not long out of school and eager to learn a new trade.

Q: I imagine that was more exciting than audit work.

PATTERSON: At that time, I believed I would be getting involved in public transactions and companies doing IPOs and raising money. However, it was pretty obvious pretty quickly that that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon in the Dallas market, where I was working. That’s when I transitioned to the workout group and those were the transactions that turned out to be more fulfilling than an IPO, just because they required resolving critical business issues so the company could reorganize or reach another stage of life.

Q: It’s like tearing an engine apart and putting it back together correctly.

PATTERSON: That’s right. First, you have to do the diagnosis and identify what’s not working, and then you have to identify what’s causing it not to work. Then you have to figure out the most economical way to fix it.

Q: Have you been pretty happy with the path your career has taken? Would you do anything differently, given today’s vantage point?

PATTERSON: Not really. I like to fix things. Whether it’s fixing up an old house or having an interest in a business that is not running well and needs to be fixed—that’s an area where I’ve always gravitated, helping to fix or resurrect situations, improving the return on capital, and helping to improve the performance of the business. I feel very fortunate that I was able to identify early on in my career that that was something I was good at and something that I could successfully work toward, helping those companies, management teams, and investors.

The other things is, I originally worked for Price Waterhouse, so I’ve worked with the Fortune 500. I made a conscious decision about 20 years into my career to move to Austin and work with middle market companies. That has also been a great decision, helping me to fully leverage my talents in working with investors, owners, and creditors, working through situations with middle market companies.

Q: What have been some of your most gratifying, favorite, or important engagements along the way?

PATTERSON: There are two kinds of engagements that are most gratifying for me. Owners may be great operational people in their industry, but often, especially during the recession and in other situations, the market changed and the business didn’t adapt to the changing environment. Some of the most gratifying moments that I’ve had are when I’ve been able to work with management teams, often as a requirement of the lenders, to improve their cash flow reporting and management, helping them with optimizing their working capital and existing structure so they can realize the full potential of the business. That’s really the most fulfilling part of what we’ve done.

Second, on the bankruptcy side of the world, it’s increasingly more difficult to reorganize a company because of the complexities and costs of Chapter 11 proceedings. It’s always fulfilling for me when we can enter into a situation where there’s a contentious problem, end up in bankruptcy, and be able to reorganize the debt and come out with a plan. It’s gratifying to help enable a company to continue operations and fulfill its promises to repay the reorganized debts and come out the other end with an operating business, keeping jobs and the business in place and continuing as a going concern.

Q: You’re coming in from the outside to try to help these companies. You must encounter a lot of distrust and animosity. How do you deal with that?

PATTERSON: If we are suggested by the lenders, we’re often viewed as outsiders and the enemy by the company initially. It is our job to earn their trust. Really, the only way to do that is to introduce ideas and ways of doing things that are going to benefit the company. In all of those situations, the changes we make are going to be beneficial to the company as well as to the lenders. Often it takes some working experiences to build trust with those management teams so they can more effectively work with us.

It’s definitely a learned skill for me, being able to come in and not trying to start the engagement like a bull in a China closet by making a bunch of changes on day one. You have to build up that trusted advisor role with the management team so that they open up to you and allow you to be effective.

Q: Who inspires you professionally and personally?

PATTERSON: It’s funny, I was asked this same question during a campus interview during my senior year in college, and I still have the same answer. My father has always been a mentor of mine and someone I’ve always looked up to. He is the chairman of the board of a small community bank in Texas and is still doing that at 82 years old. “Small town sensibilities” fits my dad. He is someone you can depend on—not just me, but everyone he does business with. He treats others with respect, not just his important customers and members of the country club, but everyone.

Another person that I admire greatly is a guy I work with here at Bridgepoint, Bob Smith. We’ve built this firm together, from about a dozen folks to more than 140 today. Bob is a great practitioner who keeps a sense of humor about himself and a balanced view on things.

Beyond that there are a number of bright, talented people we work with in our industry, from back in my Price Waterhouse days to the attorneys and bankers I work with now to create solutions and solve problems.

I was just in Dallas at a conference yesterday. As I was walking out with a friend who works in the corporate renewal industry, an appraiser, he said, “You know, I have the best job in the world. They pay me to hang out with my friends. That’s the best thing about what I do.” I kind of feel the same way about it.

Q: What advice do you have for someone who is new to the industry or is thinking about getting into restructuring?

PATTERSON: My advice is, if you love the thrill of the deal and love the challenge of solving problems and figuring out innovative solutions, then this is a great industry for you. My advice is to immerse yourself in it and enjoy every minute of it. There are challenges along the way that will pull you in different directions and challenge the balances of what you have to deal with every day, but it’s fulfilling and rewarding. I would encourage anyone who has an interest in solving problems and conflict resolutions to go for it.

Q: What role has your TMA membership played in your career?

PATTERSON: I’m with the Central Texas Chapter, which is Austin and San Antonio. I’ve been on the board for a number of years, and I’m a past president, so I have also been on the national TMA board. The friends I’ve made around the U.S. continue to be great referral sources and friends. For example, every year Tom Kim, TMA’s immediate past chairman, visits Austin and attends the Formula One race at the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin. He’s become a great friend and business partner.

I can honestly say that almost everybody I do business with that has anything to do with the distressed business and restructuring has had some kind of connection to TMA. I regularly attend the regional conference down here, where I get reconnected with people I don’t see on a regular basis. It has greatly enhanced my knowledge of the industry, as well as my network of professionals who work in the industry.

Q: Let’s talk a little bit about your passions outside the office.

PATTERSON: One of the reasons I moved to Austin was the natural beauty of the Texas Hill Country and the rivers and lakes in this area. I love being in the outdoors. My wife and I have a family with three teenagers, and we enjoy camping and hiking. We’ve taken trips to Glacier National Park, where we’ve done backpack hiking. We’ve hiked the Grand Canyon, and we’ve hiked Yosemite and Big Bend National Park in Texas. I don’t have a greater pleasure than seeing my teenagers enjoy the outdoors while camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, or wake boarding.

When I first moved to Austin in the late ‘90s, I got involved with the Colorado River Foundation (CRF). I was a board member and also served as president of the board. CRF is an advocate for the health of the river and the education of the community around the importance of the river. The organization has education programs for disadvantaged kids who might otherwise not be able to enjoy the river. It promotes raft and canoe trips, ecology programs, and parks for families to access the river. Being involved with the group was a way for me to give back to the community, as well as to be outdoors.

We also have some property north of Austin, in the Colorado River basin near Lake Buchanan. The wildlife on the land is incredible. It’s fun to bird watch, and, unlike in my daily life, the only way to do that is to relax and let the wildlife come to you. We have a resident osprey we’re hoping will nest there this year, red tail hawks, big horn owls, wild turkeys, quail, migratory ducks and geese, doves, song birds, and even migrating pelicans occasionally. Of course the white tail deer are the most common sightings, and it’s a Texas tradition to try and cultivate the bucks with the biggest antler racks that we can possibly achieve.

Q: What might people who only know you in your professional capacity be most surprised to learn about you?

PATTERSON: I’d highlight the ranch property we own. I kind of coerced my extended family into buying it with me. I have a brother in Dallas and a brother and sister in San Antonio, and my parents live in Gilmer, a small town in northeast Texas. It’s enjoyable to get away. Plus, it’s a place where we can enjoy friends and family. It is also fulfilling to create habitat like food plots and wood duck boxes for the wildlife.

Q: What’s on your personal bucket list?

PATTERSON: Before I was married and had kids, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. At the top of my bucket list is to take my wife and kids to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In one of my stints in Price Waterhouse, I lived in the Middle East, in Kuwait. We took a vacation out of there with some of the folks I worked with.

Q: How was living in the Middle East?

PATTERSON: I enjoyed it. It was in ’93 and ’94, two years after the original Gulf War. We were working for the State of Kuwait. Part of Saddam Hussein’s treaty with the United Nations was that he would reciprocate anyone harmed in the invasion. So it was kind of like a big bankruptcy. Classes of claims were set up, like in a bankruptcy.

We were doing valuations and working with attorneys who were writing up statements of claims that were filed with a tribunal that was set up by the United Nations. We were there a year doing these valuations around the Ministry of Electricity and Water or the telecom company or the import/export group, doing lost profits and property damage valuations. It was fascinating, and I had a great time.

Ironically, my wife was teaching school over there at the time at an American curriculum school. That’s where I met her. She had grown up in Louisiana. I talked her into moving to Austin. I’m so lucky to have found her. The rest is history.

Q: So you got an unexpected bonus?

PATTERSON: Exactly.