Matthew Atkinson

Matthew Atkinson – IFT Accredited Member 

Matthew Atkinson is an expert in higher and further education M&A, HE financial management and governance, market oversight, financial forecasting and sustainability, government finance and capital structuring.  After 12 years at PWC in business recovery and prior to becoming an independent adviser, he spent six years as a senior civil servant, and was the finance director and director of provider market oversight at the £62bn per annum Education and Skills Funding Agency.  He worked with Cabinet Office and other departments on their problematic suppliers. In his role as restructuring lead for the Department for education he was responsible for financing over 40 mergers in the education sector and led and overseen the financing of multiple major financial restructurings. Since becoming an independent adviser in 2023 he has worked with multiple leadership teams at education providers.  Recently he has acted as a CRO at a large university sourcing new capital and assisting with a major refinancing and is currently advising a government agency on oversight and intervention. Matthew is an accountant, qualified insolvency practitioner and a member of the Institute for Turnaround. He is a member of the Council at the University of Bradford.