Gess was a founding Partner of the Pitcher Partners Business Recovery and Insolvency Services division. Retiring from the Melbourne firm’s partnership in 2021, Gess is currently a Consultant in the division. He is a Court Appointed Liquidator and Registered Trustee in Bankruptcy with experience in all forms of corporate and personal insolvencies.
With an understanding of the worlds of business, law and ethics, Gess has a strength of character that is essential to deliver financial results or hold people to account in an upstanding and morally ethical manner. He consults extensively on asset preservation, debt negotiation and restructuring, business workouts and insolvency assessments to financially distressed businesses and individuals. He also advises clients about the impact to these on someone else’s insolvency.
Gess works as part of a collaborative team who are adept at addressing competing interests, unravelling convoluted financial situations, and garnering trust and respect from the entire range of stakeholders in the insolvency process. He is a founding creator of Pitcher Partners’ Critical Point Network, Chairman of the Baker Tilley Asia Pacific Insolvency Committee, and a member of the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association. He co-authored the book, “Going Broke, Staying Sane”, and presents regularly on issues pertaining to business recovery.
Gess was admitted to the Melbourne partnership in 1995. When Pitcher Partners was established in 1991 at the height of the recession, he saw an opportunity to leave his predecessor firm along with the founding partners and establish a dedicated insolvency practice. He avoided ‘following the crowd’ and forged his own unique path by prioritising technical excellence, reputation, and relationships.
As a former leading Partner of one of the most recognised and respected insolvency practices in Australia, he continues to embody the Pitcher Partners’ culture and values and remains one of the most trusted and experienced insolvency practitioners in the country.
Qualifications and memberships
- Bachelor of Economics (La Trobe University)
- Fellow of CPA Australia
- Affiliate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA)
- Member of Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA)
- Official Liquidator of Supreme Court of Victoria
- Registered Trustee in Bankruptcy
