NMC’s acting CEO Michael Davis rewarded for managing turnaround
DAVIS HAS SHOWN HE CAN DELIVER, INSIDERS SAY
Davis ( right) joined NMC in 2015 and then landed the chief operating officer’s role in 2017. But his elevation to the acting CEO’s role in February would not have been imagined possible by anyone at the beginning of this year.
After serving as acting CEO through some highly charged months, Michael Davis has been confirmed in a full- time capacity at Abu Dhabi’s NMC Healthcare. It comes after playing a decisive role in securing more time from NMC’s lenders for a turnaround to happen and working closely with consultants from Alvarez & Marsal, who were appointed as administrators.
“Confirming Davis was the obvious thing to do — along with the guys at A& M, he’s best placed to script NMC’s next course of action,” said a banker who worked closely with Davis since March. “He brings tremendous goodwill, and he’s shown he can deliver through the toughest months from March until now.”
During that phase, he had to ensure NMC’s day- to- day operations were running effectively enough to handle the Covid- 19 crisis. At another level, he had to get a grip on the near weekly round of fresh — and troubling — revelations about wilful diversion of $ 4 billion plus in bank loans under the previous management.
Davis joined NMC in 2015 and then landed the chief operating officer’s role in 2017. But his elevation to the acting CEO’s role in February would not have been imagined possible by anyone at the beginning of this year. It was in December last year that the first revelations of financial mismanagement were implied by US financial services firm MuddyW aters.
At the time, then NMC CEO Prashant Manghat dismissed it as nothing more than a nuisance, but subsequent revelations proved itwas anything but that. Manghat departed, and the then board of directors immediately assigned Davis the acting CEO’s role. He also joined the reconstituted board of directors.