Richard "Rick" Szekelyi is a Partner at Inglewood and one of the region's most seasoned turnaround and restructuring executives, with over 30 years spent inside middle-market companies wrestling with fast growth, economic downturns, thin capitalization, and operational breakdowns. A CPA and Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP), Rick doesn't advise from the sidelines. He takes the wheel, having served as interim CEO, COO, and CFO across manufacturing, food processing, aerospace, and remediation and restoration, among other industries.
Most recently, Rick led turnaround and restructuring, investment banking, and transaction advisory engagements as a senior leader at Phoenix Management Services. That work sits on top of a career built for exactly these situations: he founded his own boutique advisory firm, held senior bank management roles, ran Entrepreneurial Services as a Director at Arthur Young & Co., and served as Director of Corporate Development for a private equity firm. It is a rare operator who has sat on the lending side, the deal side, and the owner's side of the table, and Rick has worked all three.
When situations end up in dispute, his judgment carries weight in the courtroom too. Rick has served as an expert witness in more than thirty commercial litigation matters, translating complex financial and operational realities into testimony that holds up under scrutiny. It is the kind of credibility earned only by decades of doing the actual work.
Rick is a member and past president of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Northern Ohio Chapter, and a graduate of The Ohio State University and Xavier University, where he earned an MBA in accounting and finance. At Inglewood, he brings that full arsenal to bear for owners and stakeholders who need clear thinking, decisive leadership, and a path back to stability and value.
Core experience
- 30+ years leading middle-market turnaround and restructuring
- CPA and Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP)
- Interim CEO, COO, and CFO across manufacturing, aerospace, and food processing
- Led turnaround, investment banking, and transaction advisory at Phoenix Management Services
- Expert witness in 30+ commercial litigation matters
- Past President, TMA Northern Ohio Chapter; MBA, Xavier University
Core Disciplines
Where Richard goes deep
Turnaround & Restructuring
Turnaround and restructuring is the discipline of stabilizing companies in distress and rebuilding them into viable, valuable enterprises. At Inglewood, Rick Szekelyi practices it as an operator, not a bystander, diagnosing the real causes of decline (fast growth, downturns, thin capitalization, operational gaps) and executing the fixes. As a CPA and Certified Turnaround Professional with over 30 years across manufacturing, food processing, aerospace, and remediation, he restores cash discipline, resets operations, and gives lenders and owners a credible, defensible path forward under pressure.
Interim & Crisis Management
Interim management places a seasoned executive directly in the leadership seat when a company can't wait for a search or can't afford another misstep. Rick Szekelyi has stepped in as interim CEO, COO, and CFO across a wide range of industries, taking accountability for the outcome rather than issuing recommendations. At Inglewood, this means immediate, hands-on leadership during the moments that matter most: stabilizing operations, steadying stakeholders, and making the hard calls that a company in transition needs made quickly and correctly.
Transaction Advisory & Investment Banking
Transaction advisory guides owners through sales, recapitalizations, and complex deals when the stakes and the scrutiny are highest. Rick Szekelyi has led investment banking and transaction advisory engagements and served as Director of Corporate Development for a private equity firm, giving him a deal-maker's instinct for structure, value, and timing. At Inglewood, he pairs that transactional fluency with deep operational insight, so owners understand not just what a deal looks like on paper, but whether the business behind it can actually deliver it.
Financial & Operational Advisory
Financial and operational advisory connects the numbers to the business, identifying where performance is leaking and how to fix it. As a CPA with senior bank management experience and a background running Entrepreneurial Services at Arthur Young & Co., Rick Szekelyi reads a company's financial and operational health with unusual precision. At Inglewood, he uses that lens to surface the root causes of underperformance and inadequate capitalization, then builds practical plans that owners and lenders can trust and act on.
Expert Witness & Litigation Support
Expert witness work brings rigorous, independent financial and operational analysis into commercial disputes. Rick Szekelyi has served as an expert witness in more than thirty commercial litigation matters, translating complex distressed-company realities into clear, defensible testimony. At Inglewood, this experience sharpens every engagement: he documents decisions to a standard that holds up under adversarial scrutiny, which is exactly the discipline stakeholders want when a situation may one day be tested in court.
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