NorthHelm focuses on capital-intensive, asset-heavy businesses – primarily energy, power, and industrial services across North America. That includes upstream and midstream operators, power and infrastructure assets, and the field-intensive service and logistics businesses that support them. These sectors face a particular mix of issues in distress: long-dated obligations (like decommissioning or lease commitments), reserve-based or asset-based lending structures, commodity and demand volatility, and complex regulatory and stakeholder environments. Having led TSX/TSX-V-listed energy companies and worked with lenders and investors in these markets, we understand how those sector realities interact with capital structure and operations. That means we can speak the language of your board, lenders, and engineers from day one and design restructuring options that actually work in your world – rather than applying a generic playbook written for a different industry.

A company should bring in a CRO or interim CEO when capital and credibility are under strain at the same time – for example, when covenant breaches are looming, liquidity is tight, lenders are pressing for action, or a leadership gap has opened at exactly the wrong moment. Other triggers include failed refinancing efforts, recurring forecast misses, escalating supplier or stakeholder tension, and boards sensing that management is out of bandwidth or out of answers. In the energy and industrial context, it is also a red flag when ARO, reserve redeterminations, or other long-dated liabilities are constraining your capital structure and negotiating options. In practice, if you’re asking the question “do we need outside crisis leadership?” it’s usually time to talk – and companies that engage a CRO 2–4 weeks before an expected covenant breach fare materially better than those that wait until after default.

A Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) is focused primarily on cash, capital structure, and stakeholders – stabilising liquidity, managing covenants and maturities, negotiating with lenders and creditors, and designing the restructuring or recapitalisation plan. An interim CEO carries the broader mandate for overall business leadership – operations, people, strategy, and day-to-day decision-making. In many distressed or transitioning situations, especially in mid-market energy and industrial companies, NorthHelm will combine the two and act as both interim CEO and CRO so that operational, financial, and strategic decisions are fully aligned and there is a single accountable leader at the helm.

The first 30–60 days are about building a hard fact base and imposing a cadence. NorthHelm will stand up a 13-week cash flow and liquidity map, review covenants and capital structure, and identify exactly where and when pressure points hit. We’ll meet key lenders, sponsors, and board members, take control of outward communication, and implement immediate stabilisation actions on cash and cost. That can include pausing non-essential spend, resetting short-term priorities, and clarifying who is accountable for what. By the end of this period, the board and lenders have a concise, lender-grade options set – what’s realistically possible (refinance, recapitalise, selective asset sales, deeper restructure, or orderly wind-down) – and a recommended path with clear next steps and milestones.

Every situation is different, but most CRO / interim CEO mandates follow a similar pattern. There is a diagnostic phase of roughly 2–4 weeks to “set bearings”, an active execution phase of 3–12 months to stabilise, restructure, and implement the plan, and a transition phase of 2–4 weeks to hand the business back to permanent leadership. We are not there to build empires or protect turf – our job is to fix the problem and make ourselves unnecessary – so engagements are always scoped with a defined end-state. In total, mandates typically span 4–18 months: long enough to deliver meaningful change, but always with a clear plan to return to a normal leadership footing.

NorthHelm is usually brought in when there is a clear mix of financial strain and execution risk. Common triggers include covenant breaches or near-breaches, negative or very tight liquidity, lender fatigue after multiple amendments, and failed refinancing or sale processes. In energy and industrial businesses, we are often called when ARO or other long-dated liabilities are constraining options, when reserve-based lending redeterminations threaten availability, when environmental super-priorities (such as Redwater-driven considerations) change the economics, or when commodity or demand shocks have broken the underlying plan. At that point, boards, lenders, and sponsors want an independent operator to take the helm, restore lender confidence, and give them a realistic view of what’s possible.

We are engaged by and through the board and operate with a clear written mandate, reporting line, and scope. NorthHelm acts as the single accountable owner of the restructuring plan: we implement a non-negotiable weekly cash and KPI cadence, produce lender-grade reporting, and front-end communications with lenders and other key stakeholders. Boards get unvarnished information and actionable choices rather than slideware; lenders get transparent data they can defend to their credit committees; sponsors get a pragmatic operator who understands both their objectives and the lender’s risk lens. Our role is to re-align management, lenders, and owners around a realistic path forward and then to deliver against it, week after week.

We keep economics simple and aligned with outcomes. Most NorthHelm mandates use a monthly retainer – typically in the $15K–$30K per month range for mid-market mandates – that reflects the scope, intensity, and expected duration of the role, often preceded by a fixed-fee diagnostic phase to establish the fact base and options. For longer or more complex restructurings, we may agree a modest success-based component tied to specific milestones, such as closing a refinancing, executing a recapitalisation, or completing a transaction, so that our upside is linked to stakeholder outcomes, not hours billed. There is no long-term employment obligation: you engage us for the period you need crisis leadership, and we leave once the job is done and the helm is ready to be handed back.