John Winter resigns as ARITA Chief Executive Officer
11/02/2025
Frank and fearless leader to depart in May.
After 11 years leading the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association (ARITA), CEO, John Winter has announced that he will depart the organisation in May, after tendering his resignation to the Board.
The announcement marks the end of a remarkable chapter in the ARITA’s history, with Winter credited for raising the reputation of the organisation both domestically and globally.
After taking on the role from January 2014, Winter spearheaded many notable initiatives by ARITA in the restructuring, insolvency and turnaround sector.
Always a trailblazer, Winter’s achievements include the development of the ARITA white paper “A Platform for Recovery” which has underpinned almost all the law reform that has occurred in this sector since 2014. It arguably was the foundation of Safe Harbour, Small Business Restructuring, ipso facto reforms, Simplified Liquidations and Director IDs.
Winter pivoted ARITA throughout COVID-19, continuing to provide educational offerings in an online environment while providing critical information to members during the implementation of the Small Business Restructuring legislation.
Winter revealed the difficulty behind deciding to step away from the role.
“It has been an incredibly tough choice, because I absolutely love the members and the ARITA team; I can honestly say it's been the best job I've ever had. But it’s time for me to move on to other challenges,” Winter said.
“I’m also incredibly proud of our education offerings. ARITA’s world leading Advanced Certification course remains the only pathway to becoming a registered liquidator or trustee in Australia. We’ve recently had approval to move this into the VET sector and offer a full Graduate Diploma in Restructuring, Insolvency and Turnaround and, in 2026, ARITA will become a Registered Training Organisation, giving our educational offerings the highest level of credibility where our members get to completely own the value chain of our enrolments.
“Also, along the way we identified a gap in the marketplace and developed the Essential Skills program which offers incredible value to our member firms in keeping themselves and their staff up to date on vital skills at an affordable access price, just like our precedent suite. We also continued to improve and update the Introduction to Insolvency Program, the industry-standard insolvency introduction program since 2005.
“I hope people look back over the last decade or so and can reflect on what ARITA has come to stand for: a robust and dynamic association that proudly represents its members and leads the way in education in Australia.”
Winter added that he took exceptional pride from other, less widely known indicators.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that we have incredibly high retention rates in our membership, which is the lifeblood of ARITA. I always boast that we have over 95% retention rate of our members and we represent over 80% of all insolvency practitioners in Australia. We must be doing something right to achieve that kind of representation and engagement year after year,” Winter said.
“Secondly, I’m so very proud of our hard-working staff and our great culture here which is 100% focused on our members. Many of our staff are very long-term employees or have returned to ARITA after time away.
“I am particularly pleased to be able to leave ARITA in the very safe hands of its staff and know that they have ARITA’s best interests at heart. Also, I have had the privilege of working with various Board’s over the years and believe that the Board will continue to steer ARITA and serve its members best interests.
“ARITA will always be part of my life, and I have many incredible friends in the membership that I will stay connected to.”
ARITA President Rachel Burdett RITF said it was difficult to articulate the impact Winter had on ARITA, and the RIT industry more broadly.
“Globally recognised and regarded, John’s frank and fearless approach changed industry attitudes towards restructuring, insolvency, and turnaround at every level. His leadership has become synonymous with the ARITA brand, and he has shaped the organisation into one of the most respected and robust organisations in the RIT industry,” Burdett said.
“This is an opportunity for us to acknowledge John’s achievements and to reflect on his time at ARITA, and we look forward to acknowledging John over the coming months, including at the National Conference in April.”
Burdett added that, with many large projects on the horizon, the Board and the team were quickly shifting their focus to keeping service standards high, as is usual.
“We are incredibly proud and lucky to have had John lead our team of dedicated and hard-working staff, and the Board have already taken steps to take on leadership aligned with organisational pillars during the transition to new leadership,” Burdett explained.
“John will be with ARITA until May, and it will be business as usual over the next few months while ARITA transitions to a new leadership. It is an exciting new chapter for ARITA.”
The ARITA Board have commenced the process of recruitment.
Winter is just the fifth CEO of the organisation over its different incarnations since the organisation first started permanent staffing in 1988 after its origins in 1932.