Alvarez & Marsal

Our first joint CSR profile for 2025, Carmen and Robert tell us about their work within A&M TAG, and their previous roles at KPMG UK and EY.

Please provide a short outline of your current role and a brief description of any other relevant career experience
Carmen is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Transaction Advisory Group in London.  She brings over eight years of experience in sell-side and buy-side financial due diligence, where she has been involved in over 40 M&A transactions. Prior to joining A&M in January 2021, Carmen spent four years with the Private Equity Group at KPMG UK (London).

Robert is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Transaction Advisory Group in London specialising in software, healthcare and business services financial due diligence. Prior to joining A&M, Robert spent four years with EY, specialising in private equity, wealth and asset management assurance services. Robert is also a Trustee for Reaching Higher, a south London charity that empowers young people to become leaders of their own lives.

Why is CSR important to your organisation?
At A&M we encourage our professionals to live by our values of integrity, quality, objectivity, fun, personal reward and inclusive diversity on a daily basis. This influences everything we do; everyone we hire and how we interact with our clients. The result of this is superior client service and gratifying careers in a collaborative and inclusive environment, where we can embrace diversity, foster inclusiveness and reward merit.

Which topics, themes or initiatives are your organisation currently focused on?
TAG – as well as a number of other teams at A&M UK – have partnered with ELBA to develop numerous CSR initiatives. These include:

• Internship programmes alongside Project Parity and BOOST, where we have been focusing on providing early-stage career support for men and women in underrepresented communities
• Career insight days for teenagers in east London schools, providing practical exercises to develop confidence building, presentation skills and critical thinking with the help of A&M’s volunteers
• Team challenges aimed at supporting local communities (e.g. Thames River clean-up, renovating the grounds of a local adventure park in east London and supporting Christmas efforts of a local charity)
• Mentorship support to east London university students
• Fundraisers for various charities. Last year alone, we were able to raise £19,000 for Food Bank Aid, Reaching Higher and Youngs Lives vs. Cancer over Christmas, whilst in 2022 we raised circa £5000 for ELBA’s Toy Appeal

What is the best part of your job?
The best part of our jobs is the ability to work EMEA-wide with highly intelligent and interesting people, in a fast-paced and stimulating environment. No two deals are the same, and at A&M we get the ability to learn about all kinds of industries and get experience in a variety of transaction types throughout our careers. Additionally, thanks to A&M’s entrepreneurial set-up, we are encouraged to pursue activities we are passionate about with leadership’s full support, making our daily jobs more meaningful and rewarding.