Stephen Bence
Stephen Bence is a Financial and Commercial Specialist (non lawyer) within Vardags. Stephen graduated with honours in Natural Science from the University of Cambridge in 1993 and with a PhD in astrophysics from the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge in 1997.
Stephen enjoyed a successful career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co rising rapidly to the position of Engagement Manager. At McKinsey he worked with global blue chip organisations on a broad range of projects including: corporate strategy; mergers and acquisitions; organisational development; operational improvement; and financial management
More recently Stephen has launched a series of successful ventures including Business Funding Research Ltd (which links businesses and business funders) and two consulting companies (Transentia Ltd and Spin-out Strategy Ltd). Spin-out Strategy Ltd provides strategy consulting services to High Net Worth Individuals particularly during transition periods.
At Vardags Stephen deals with complex financial cases, including: valuation of private companies; interpreting complex remuneration schemes; finding hidden assets; and liberating cash to allow clean-break settlements.
For example, in a recent case Stephen identified that a Single Joint Expert had undervalued a private company by over 50%; he also identified ways in which to liberate cash from that private company to facilitate a prospective settlement. In another case Stephen showed that a partner in an investment fund had set up a complex remuneration structure to depress his short-term earnings in favour of massive long-term value.
Stephen works with both financially-stronger parties (to help them to present their position accurately) and with financially-weaker parties (to help them to identify and value assets and to be on an equal footing with their spouse).