Accountancy people moves: January 2024

Each month, Accountancy Age delivers a comprehensive update on the key people moves and promotions that have taken place among the UK accountancy market’s top 100 firms.

In February 2024, we unveil the final wave of activity among some of the largest firms and accounting bodies in the UK across the start of the year. Grant Thornton bids farewell to its chief executive after five years in the role; BDO announces several partner appointments, PwC Scotland announces a new head of its cyber practice, and ATT names a new exec director for Strategy and Compliance.

Mid-tier 

(January 2) – BDO appoints Lucy Saunders as private client partner to its South East team. Saunders brings 20 years of experience to the firm, with particular expertise in advising high-net worth individuals on complex tax matters. This includes inheritance, trust, and company areas.

(January 2) – Lauren Glaister has been appointed as an investment management partner at Evelyn Partner’s Leeds office. She joins from oins from LGT Wealth Management’s discretionary fund management business (previously part of abrdn) where she spent three years and was a Senior Investment Manager.

(January 2) – PKF Smith Cooper announces a number of cross-departmental promotions, including Julie Stringer. Stringer, after 11 years with the firm, has been promoted to audit director. Josh Gurton has been promoted twice in six months, first to assistant manager and then to manager, after proving himself a key player in the PKF Corporate Finance team. Deniss Sipovics has been promoted to Transaction Services manager.

(January 2) – Sadie Nicholls and Sam Palmer have been promoted to manager at Lovewell Blake. Nicholls, who joined the firm in 206, works in the tax consultancy team, while Palmer specialised in corporate tax and has been with the firm since 2021.

(January 3) – Crowe appoints Dipesh Chhatralia as a parter in its social purpose and non-profits team. He joined the firm in 2011 as a senior associate; in his new role he will continue to specialise in audit and advisory to a broad range of clients.

(January 4) – Sedulo appoints two salaried partners amidst record revenues. Andy Nixon and Josh Perry join the team after the firm forecast organic growth of 25% in 2024.

(January 8) – Faye Hall is welcomed as a new partner with FRP’s Forensic services team. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the field, most recently as a partner and head of Private Client Disputes at Evelyn Partners.

(January 8) – PM+M makes a record 22 promotions across departments, including those of three new directors; Claire Layton and Chris Read who specialise in audit, accounting and advisory work; and Dean Rodgers who focuses on advisory and accounting matters.

January 9) – Dow Schofield Watts appoints Shaf Bheda as a partner to it’s newly established corporate finance team. He was previously head of Magma Corporate Finance and was part of the DSW founding team but has only just joined due to contractual commitments.

(January 10) – Hayley Deeming is appointed a tax director at Armstrong Watson. Deeming, who will lead the firm’s Corporate Tax team in Newcastle, joins Armstrong Watson after eight years at UNW, where she was a senior tax manager.

(January 10) – RSM UK’s partner Tyrone Courtman has been appointed Turnaround Management Association European President for a term of two years. Courtman is a restructuring partner at the leading audit, tax and consulting firm, specialising in restructuring and recovery situations, with a view to maximising the preservation of enterprise value.

(January 11) – Grant Thornton’s CEO Dave Dunckley announces he will step down after a successful five year tenure. Malcolm Gomersall is confirmed as the new CEO on Jan 22, subject to regulatory approval.

(January 11) – BDO appoints Phil Durma as a new transaction services partner to South West team. Durma brings over 20 years of experience advising entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses and private equity investors across the South West region. He joins from PwC and will be based in our Bristol hub.

(January 11) – Shorts promotes Alicia Williams to position of Genus director. Since joining Shorts in 2016 as an Accounts Senior, Williams has earned promotions to Client Financial Controller and Finance System/App Integrator in 2017 and then Client FD and Digital Improvement Lead in 2022.

(January 15) – Neil Hutchings is promoted to corporate finance partner at Albert Goodman as part of efforts to strengthen the firms specialist advisory team. Hutchings underwent training with Deloitte in Nottingham and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2001, ahead of a move to PwC’s Bristol office. He joined Albert Goodman in 2008.

(January 15) – Evelyn Partners appoints two new partners  – Helen Bassett and Chris Marsden – to its Bristol office. Bassett has been with the group for more than 20 years, having joined the Bristol office of what was Solomon Hare in 2000 as an apprentice. Marsden is an experienced business restructuring specialist and joins Evelyn Partners from BDO in Bristol where he spent more than four years as a partner in the Business Restructuring team.

(January 16) – FRP appoints Penny Judd as non-executive chair. She will replace Nigel Guy who has been with the firm for 13 years. Judd has more than 35 years’ experience in compliance, regulation, corporate finance and audit. Before taking on non-executive positions, she was managing director and EMEA Head of Compliance at Nomura International plc until 2016, a position she held for three years.

(January 17) – Andrew Middleton is named new group chief marketing and commercial officer for Evelyn Partners. Middleton will become a member of the group executive committee and report to Paul Geddes, group chief executive.

(January 17) – Andrew Cockman joins Streets Accountants as a tax specialist. Cockman is a chartered tax adviser. Cockman, who is well respected by his fellow tax professionals, is a Chartered Tax Adviser and Trust and Estate Practitioner who has focused on private client and trust related taxation throughout his career in accountancy.

(January 18) – Armstong Watson appoints Steve Preston – who joined the firm in 2022 – as Audit and Assurance partner. Preston joined Armstrong Watson in 2022, after 15 years with BDO in Leeds, at the time the firm acquired ASE Professional Services in Manchester.

(January 18) – Lauren Carlyle is announced as Grant Thornton’s pick to lead its Soiuth West England and Wales practice. Having joined as a partner in 2022, Carlyle is a pensions specialist at Grant Thornton, bringing extensive experience to this new role.

(January 19) – Haysmacintyre announces three director promotions: Donna Russell, James Gramston and David Lyons. Russell has been with haysmacintyre since 2018, managing a large portfolio of clients across a range of sectors, but predominately focuses on the property sector. Gramston  joined the firm as an apprentice, before training as a chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor with haysmacintyre. And Lyons joined haysmacintyre as part of the graduate intake in 2012, training and qualifying with the firm before progressing to Director.

(January 22) – PKF GM appoints Dawn McMullan to support the firms personal and contentious insolvency team. She joins PKF GM with 17 years’ experience working within commercial, personal and contentious insolvency practices, during which time she rose from a temporary receptionist to become an assistant insolvency manager late last year.

(January 22) – Suzy Dawson-Newbury is appointed new director of governance, risk and compliance at DJH Mitten Clarke. Joining from Scottish practice, Johnston Carmichael, She has been recruited to the newly created role following our six acquisitions in 2023, which saw the team swell to more than 300.

(January 22) – Bishop Fleming appoints Kevin Connor as head of Academics, a brand new leadership role within the practice. Conor has significant experience in delivering audit and assurance services working with a diverse range of schools and organisations.

(January 24) –  Nick Cusack is named as Hazlewoods‘ third licensed insolvency practitioner to join the business recovery team. He will support the firm’s growth and will ensure clients continue to benefit from the expertise of the growing team.

(January 24) – Cowgills appoints Ben Day as a new partner to its debt advisory team. He joined Cowgills in 2017 as funding director, with previous roles held at MarketInvoice and Aldermore.  Since his arrival he has completed over £150m in funds raised.

(January 25) – Henderson Loggie appoints Shona Campbell as new chair – she took up the position on January 1 following the stepping down of Alan Davis who has held the role for eight years. Campbell leads the firm’s Business Recovery & Insolvency team and has 25 years’ experience advising businesses across Scotland.

(January 29) – Sedulo nabs Logan Rowan from KPMG to head up its national transaction services team. During his time at KPMG, Rowanled the work on a number of the most high-profile transactions in the UK market, including Advent International Corporation’s £4 billion acquisition of Cobham, their £2.6 billion acquisition of Ultra Electronics and the acquisition of Elysium Healthcare by BC Partners.

(January 30) – Luke Quince is appointed as UK director of digital delivery services at Azets. The team will continue the work with businesses as they adopt best-in-class cloud accounting technology into their business operations and processing.

(January 30) – Grant Thornton names Richard Thomas as new head of financial reporting, bolstering its public sector offering. He joins the firm with over 22 years’ experience supporting organisations across the public sector.

Big Four

(January 17) – PwC appoints Giorgio Libotte as a partner within its value creation and realisation team. He joins the firm from Nextalia Private Equity Fund based in Milan, Italy, where he was partner and Member of the Investment. Before setting up Nextalia, he spent 16 years at consultancy firm McKinsey with his most recent role as partner and leader of their European Private Equity and Corporate Finance practices.

(January 22) – Deloitte names Anil Gupta as practice senior partner for Yorkshire and the North East. Gupta will take over the role from Stuart Cottee who has held the position of practice  senior partner for the last five years. Gupta will be responsible for driving the growth of Deloitte across the region, both in terms of revenue and its people across its offices in Leeds and Newcastle.

(January 25) – PwC Scotland appoints Ross Foley as new cyber practice leader following the retirement of Colin Slater. Foley joined PwC eight years ago and as played a key role in the expansion of the team – which now comprises more than 50 people, creating a Scottish hub for PwC’s cyber security specialists.

Trade bodies

(January 19) – Jonathan Gorvin is named new executive director at The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). He took up the role of Executive Director of Strategy and Compliance on Jan 15.