Accountancy people moves: November 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 December 2024, we unveil the final wave of activity among some of the largest firms and accounting bodies in the UK across October. Nigel Burke was named Saffery’s new chairman, alongside partner promotions at Forvis Mazars, RSM, Mercer & Hole and BDO. Among the Big Four, KPMG International named three new global sector heads as partner appointments were also made at Deloitte and EY. 

The ACCA also made history with the appointment of Melanie Proffitt. Alongside Ayla Majid to the office of president at the recent AGM and Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan as vice president, makes this the first time in ACCA’s history that women have held all three officer posts at the same time.

Mid-tier 

(Nov 1) Menzies has expanded its Forensic and Valuation Services team with the appointment of Greg Huitson-Little as partner. With two decades of experience, he adds to Menzies’ extensive expertise in the forensic accounting, valuation and quantum aspects of commercial litigation and arbitration. Huitson-Little has worked across a broad range of industries and clients, and complements his commercial practice with deep experience in intellectual property and transaction-related disputes.

(Nov 1) James Cowper Kreston has appointed Nikul Patel is being promoted to director in the firm’s Corporate Finance team. Patel has had an important role in the growth and success of the Corporate Finance team and his promotion reflects the firm’s recognition of his contributions. Based in the Reading office, he joined the firm working within the Audit and Assurance department and moved into the Corporate Finance team in 2018. Patel has extensive experience in transaction services across diverse sectors, specialising in acquisition due diligence, pre-lending due diligence and other transaction-related services.

(Nov 4) Mercer and Hole has announced the appointment of Jo Bateson as partner. She returns to Mercer & Hole’s highly respected Private Client practice as a Partner having trained at the firm and worked as a tax adviser until 2005. Bateson is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading private client tax advisers, joining KPMG in 2005 as a tax consultant, rapidly rising to partner in 2014 and leading its London family office and private client practice between 2017 and 2023.

(Nov 4) RSM UK has announced the appointment of Eoin Gribben as its new business transformation director in Manchester, as part of the firm’s growing national consulting team. His strategic hire brings over 13 years of experience, having spent the last 10 years in deal advisory working with large corporates and private equity companies across a range of industries. He joins RSM UK from KPMG where he had spent his career to date.

(Nov 6) Forvis Mazars has announced the appointment of Emma Mason as new corporate tax partner in the London office.  Mason will be responsible for building a dedicated mid-market tax advisory team in London, developing Forvis Mazars’ existing offering to meet the evolving needs of Privately owned business clients and the firm’s growing client base in the space. As well as expanding the current team, she will also support with training and development of the wider team.

(Nov 7) FRP has made three promotions within its Corporate Finance and Debt Advisory teams. Amit Bagga, based in our London West End office has been promoted to Associate Director within the Debt Advisory team, David Kola, based in our London City office, has been promoted to Deal Origination Manager and Tom Pearce, based in our London West End team, has been promoted to Senior Research Analyst.

(Nov 19) PKF Smith Cooper has expanded its tax team with the appointment of James Barry as its new personal tax manager. Barry joins the firm with over seven years’ experience in personal tax at a top 10 UK firm and he has also spent two years at one of the top R&D consultancy firms in the UK. With experience in dealing with high value capital disposals and remuneration planning, he is highly knowledgeable on income tax and capital gains tax issues, including unincorporated businesses, specifically partnerships, sole trades and rental properties. 

(Nov 21) HW Fisher has announced that it has appointed two new directors to support the firm’s continued growth. Susan Armstrong-Brookes has been appointed Director in the Credit Management Department. She has been with HW Fisher for over twenty-two years, leading the group credit management function, management of the groups tax investigation service, and management of the funding scheme. Louise Hughes has also been appointed Marketing Director for HW Fisher. She runs the marketing and business development work across HW Fisher. Hughes has over twenty years’ experience across top-tier accountancy firms and has been a part of the HW Fisher team for nearly four years.

(Nov 21) BDO has appointed Emma Hosking-Williams and Stuart Macdougall as new partners. Hosking-Williams joins BDO as a partner in the Private Capital tax team. Her expertise includes working with ultra-high net worth individuals, family businesses, trust and corporate service providers and large multinationals, offering bespoke, holistic advice. She joins from EY and will be based in BDO’s London office. Stuart Macdougall joins the firm as an audit partner with expertise in ESG. Stuart brings over 20 years’ experience specialising in working with entrepreneurs, private equity-backed companies and large international groups. He joins from Saffery where he previously led the Entrepreneur National Practice Group and more recently the Sustainability Service line, as well as being Co-Chair for Nexia’s Global ESG group. Stuart will be based in BDO’s Glasgow office.

(Nov 21) Saffery has elected Nigel Burke to the role of chairman for a four-year term. James Sykes, the outgoing Chairman, served two terms in the role having been first elected in 2016. During his tenure, the firm has grown organically with fee income that has doubled to £142m in 2024. Burke previously served in the elected position of Deputy Chairman. He has been with Saffery since the establishment of the firm’s film and TV unit in 2012. He specialises in providing financial, accounting, audit, and taxation advice to businesses in the media and entertainment sector.

(Nov 26) Azets has announced the promotion of Mark Barrie to head of debt advisory. Barrie, previously Funding & Strategic Partnership Director, will be assisting business owners and managers with new funding lines, working with intermediaries and mainstream and independent lenders. He joined Azets in June 2019 in the banking and finance team, having worked for more than 25 years in the financial services industry, advising companies on new strategic initiatives, growth and expansion, as well as raising new and additional funding.

(Nov 26) Evelyn Partners has announced the appointment of Kate Morissey as its new head of asset allocation, who will join the the leading wealth and investment group with £62.7bn of assets under management as Head of Asset Allocation, a new position on the central investment team. She arrives at Evelyn Partners after 23 years at HSBC, most recently within HSBC Global Asset Management, where she was ultimately Head of World Selection and Global Strategy Funds. In that role she was Lead Portfolio Manager with responsibility for the management of the World Selection and Global Strategy fund ranges, worth £10bn and £6bn respectively. 

(Nov 27) Baker Tilly International has appointed Nick Bull as the network’s global head of Audit. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Bull is an audit partner at Pitcher Partners, Baker Tilly International’s member firm in Australia. In this network-wide role, he will co-ordinate with regional and service line audit teams to execute the global audit strategy while leading network efforts in audit-related business development, knowledge sharing, and learning initiatives.

(Nov 29) PKF Smith Cooper has appointed Joe Anderson as new assistant manager in the East Midlands team as the firm focuses on strengthening their dealmaking presence within the region through ongoing team expansion. Anderson has 10 years’ experience in working at a top-10 accountancy firm and supporting owner-managed businesses. He has helped business owners in a range of industries, developing strong experience in the financial services and healthcare industries, in particular.

(Nov 29) RSM Ireland has announced the appointment of three partners and three directors, further strengthening its audit, tax and consulting teams.

• Ronan Gilmartin joins as an audit partner and will play a lead role in developing the firm’s services to its technology and media clients.
• Sunil Adhikary joins as an audit director from Deloitte and has with 15 years of experience providing audit and advisory services to publicly listed companies, multinationals, and SMEs in Ireland, Asia, and Australia.
• Consulting partner Alison Hodgson has over 20 years’ experience in delivering significant HR transformation and change programmes across a wide range of industries. In her new role, Alison will lead the delivery of these solutions to RSM’s growing consulting practice.
• In addition, director Simon Rattigan joins the consulting practice from EY and has over 15 years’ experience and provides specialist forensic services including accounting support for commercial claims and disputes, and investigation into financial issues, fraudulent accounting and misconduct.
• Liam Kenny joins RSM as a tax partner from Grant Thornton where he spent nearly 20 years working with high-growth domestic businesses, family offices, and private equity-backed enterprises. He advises on M&A transactions, succession planning, share reorganisations, and personal and corporate tax for Irish businesses and their owners.
• Seán McCarthy rejoins the firm from PWC as a tax director and has over 12 years’ experience of providing corporate tax advisory services to a wide range of domestic and international clients. Seán’s primary practice area is the provision of corporate tax advisory services for FDI businesses across a broad range of industries, particularly technology and life science companies.

Big Four

(Nov 11) KPMG International has announced three new global sector head appointments across the organisation’s life sciences, industrial manufacturing and asset management. Liz Claydon has been appointed Global Sector Head of Life Sciences, alongside two roles she’ll continue to serve – Head of Global Deal Advisory and Vice Chair within KPMG in the UK. Jonathon Gill has been appointed Global Sector Head of Industrial Manufacturing. He brings a wealth of experience from the industry, including his most recent roles as Head of Industrial Manufacturing and Defence at KPMG in the UK. Jim Suglia has been appointed Global Sector Head of Asset Management. With more than 24 years’ experience within KPMG,  Sugliatakes on his new role alongside leading the Alternative Investments Practice at KPMG in the US.

(Nov 25) EY has appointed corporate finance professional Will Rix as a new partner and the firm’s new head of Capital and and Debt Advisory North. The role will focus on independently advising businesses, including both corporate and Private Equity (PE) owned clients, on optimising capital structures and their cost of capital, as well as providing execution services. He also set to work closely with EY’s diligence, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and restructuring teams. Rix joins EY from HSBC, where he worked for almost 11 years, most recently as a Senior Director in its Corporate Banking Origination team.

(Nov 29) Deloitte has appointed Allee Bonnard and Paul Stephenson to the roles of UK and North and South Europe (NSE) Managing Partner for Audit & Assurance (A&A). Bonnard is a financial services audit partner and has over 20 years of asset management and private equity experience working across both listed and large private entities. She currently leads Deloitte UK’s financial services audit practice and is a member of the firm’s audit executive. Stephenson currently UK Managing Partner for A&A and is an audit partner in the financial services industry. He has held numerous management positions within the firm’s UK A&A business throughout his career, including as Chief Operating Officer, and leading financial services audit and the graduate recruitment team. He l succeeds Nikki Mitchell, who is retiring at the end of the financial year.

Tech & Industry Players

(Nov 1) The FCA and PSR boards have appointed Alison Potter as chair of the FCA’s Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) and the PSR’s Enforcement Decisions Committee (EDC). The new appointment has been made ahead of the existing chair, Tim Parkes, standing down later this year. Alison Potter will begin on 1 November 2024, with a short transitional period alongside Tim Parkes.

(Nov 18) The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has appointed Melanie Proffitt as new deputy president of the global professional accountancy. The election of Proffitt, alongside Ayla Majid to the office of president at the recent AGM and Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan as vice president, makes this the first time in ACCA’s history that women have held all three officer posts at the same time. It’s another milestone for the professional accountancy body, which was the first to admit women to membership in 1909.

(Nov 22) ICAEW has announced the appointment of Phil Parry as its new chief information officer (CIO). Parry  will be responsible for the development and implementation of the Institute’s technology and AI solutions. As a member of the leadership team, he will also assume responsibility for IT operations, digital and publishing and for delivery of the technology programme. He joins ICAEW following a six-year stint as CIO of McArthurGlen, a leading European designer outlet