From Classic Cars to Aircraft: The Art of Modeling Distressed Companies with Vaughan Grandin

In this episode of Financial Modeler’s Corner, host Paul Barnhurst welcomes Vaughan Grandin, Managing Director and Head of Financial Modeling at Teneo. They discuss his experiences building financial models in distressed situations, the importance of empathy in working with clients, and provide examples of complex models, including those from the airline, aircraft leasing, and classic car dealership industries.

Vaughan Grandin is the Managing Director and Head of Financial Modeling at Teneo in London. He is a Chartered Accountant with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and has more than 20 years of experience in corporate advisory, finance, and restructuring. He leads Teneo’s financial modelling team, which supports clients and other advisory teams by creating reliable models for distressed companies, transactions, and stakeholder analysis.

Disclaimer: All examples and stories shared in this video are from Vaughan Grandin’s previous roles and do not reflect his current employer.

Expect to Learn

• Why empathy matters in financial modeling
• How to approach modeling in distressed situations
• The role of entity priority models and circular references
• Key principles for building robust financial models
• Lessons from real-world modeling cases across industries

Here are a few quotes from the episode:

• “Empathy is a word I think about a lot in modeling, especially in distressed situations.” - Vaughan Grandin
• “A good model should be able to take whatever inputs you give it and actually use them to solve a problem.” - Vaughan Grandin
• “In distressed situations, time pressure is real; sometimes, a company only has weeks of cash left.” - Vaughan Grandin

Follow Vaughan:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vgrandin/?originalSubdomain=uk

Company - https://www.teneo.com/person/vaughan-grandin/

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In today’s episode:

[03:22] - Model Horror Stories

[06:52] - Empathy in Modeling

[07:55] - Inside Teneo’s Team

[12:50] - Classic Car Dealership Model

[21:16] - Modeling in Distressed Situations

[27:56] - Managing Complexity

[32:07] - Aircraft Leasing During COVID

[40:31] - Six Elements of Robust Modeling

[46:51] - Rapid-Fire Excel Q&A

[53:45] - Closing Reflections