Azets has appointed Ian Beaumont as regional senior partner for the north east and Yorkshire. He has a wealth of experience across privately owned, private equity-backed, family owned and regional listed businesses across the two regions. He recently retired as head of KPMG in the north east and started his career with Haines Watts before going on to become office senior partner at RSM Robson Rhodes, BDO and KPMG. Mark Barrie has been promoted to head of debt advisory, a new role at the firm, focused on servicing growing demand for specialist support in funding and tailored finance. He was previously funding & strategic partnership director at Azets, and will be assisting business owners and managers with new funding lines, working with intermediaries and mainstream and independent lenders.

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) respectively from 1 January 2025. Bonnard is a financial services audit partner and has over 20 years of asset management and private equity experience working across listed and large private entities. She currently leads the UK financial services audit practice and is a member of the audit executive. Stephenson succeeds Nikki Mitchell, who is retiring at the end of the financial year. He is currently UK managing partner for A&A and an audit partner in the financial services industry. He has held numerous management positions across the firm’s UK A&A business, including as chief operating officer, and leading financial services audit and the graduate recruitment team.

PKF Smith Cooper has appointed Joe Anderson as assistant manager M&A in the corporate finance team in the East Midlands. He has 10 years’ experience working with owner managed businesses. In his new role he will work with clients on M&A and transactions. Previously he was assistant manager M&A at Forvis Mazars and has AAT and ACCA qualifications.Kilsby Williams has promoted Abi Cornford and Phoebe Hughes, who specialise in audit services, to manager, and hired nine staff in the business services and tax teams. New appointments in the audit team include manager Ben Hinton, senior Tomos Hill, assistant Oliver Sims and trainees Tiffany Harris, Amelia Johnston, Hollie Tapper and Dylan Thomas. On the tax side, James Davies, a chartered tax advisor whose expertise lies in compliance and advisory work for corporate and personal tax, joins the firm as a manager and Lewis Sincock as a trainee.

Henderson Loggie has expanded the corporate finance team with the appointments of David Cayzer, Conor Adamson and Gregor Miller. Cayzer joins as corporate finance director from challenger bank Shawbrook where he headed up the corporate lending division in Scotland. He brings decades of experience in deal structuring, refinancing, management buy outs and acquisitions. Conor Adamson and Gregor Miller have taken up roles as corporate finance managers. Conor joins from mid-market restructuring at PwC where he held the position of deals senior associate. Miller has multi-sector corporate finance experience and previously worked with HNH Partners, a boutique corporate finance advisory practice and EY. 

JS has strengthened its leadership team with the addition of two audit and accounts partners, Neil Kelly and Angela Harrison, who will join the leadership team and bring expertise in the local market. They will help steer the firm’s audit services, taking on a portfolio of clients across Liverpool’s business community. Previously Kelly and Harrison were both partners at DSG Chartered Accountants. Meantime, JS has also made six internal promotions, including Kyle Thorp to audit assistant manager, Chelsea-Louise Murphy to audit senior and Brianna Thomas, Maia Bartlett, Rosie Flatley and Robin Fowles to audit semi-senior. 

Baker Tilly International has appointed Nick Bull as the network’s global head of audit. Based in Melbourne, 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. He takes up the role with immediate effect, reporting to Francesca Lagerberg, CEO of Baker Tilly International.

EY has appointed Joe Depa as global chief innovation officer to spearhead applied innovation to help improve service delivery and guide EY teams to address and solve business challenges, leveraging the global network’s investment in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and blockchain. Depa will lead the group’s global innovation strategy, including overseeing implementation of emerging technologies for tangible business applications, both internally and across work of EY member firms with clients.

RCK Partners has appointed James Gibson as chief executive officer. He steps up from his previous role as chief commercial officer and will be responsible for firm growth. He takes over from co-founder and CEO Peter Roscoe, who becomes president of RCK. Roscoe will continue to support the business at a higher level, developing key client relationships and partnerships.

National Youth Agency (NYA) has appointed four trustees to the board bringing expertise in the areas of finance, accounting, audit, governance, marketing and communications. The new trustees are Nick Frost, senior partner at KPMG, Owen Purcell, former managing partner EMEIA at EY, Laura Bates, client director at communications consultancy Kallaway and Nick Caplin, former director of communications at Amazon.

OVO has appointed James Davies, current group chief financial officer (CFO) and executive director of Monzo, as CFO. A chartered accountant with more than 25 years of experience, half of which were in investment banking in the technology team at Close Brothers and Deutsche Bank. He takes over from Vincent Casey who will take up a role as board adviser at OVO Group. The company has also named retail leader Justin King as chair, and former Just Eat chief executive David Buttress as CEO.

Forth Ports has appointed Stuart MacGregor as CFO and as a member of the group’s main board. He brings a wealth of expertise to the role, with a career spanning over 30 years in the international drinks and UK house building sectors, in financial leadership, strategic business transformation, commercial and operations. Most recently, he was CEO at Stewart Milne Group, where he led the business through significant strategic initiatives, driving both growth and operational performance. Prior to that, he held senior financial leadership roles at both Stewart Milne, including the role of CFO, and Heineken based in Europe. He is an ICAEW chartered accountant.

Monzo has appointed Tom Oldham as group CFO and Mark Newbery as UK CFO. Oldham will oversee the overall financial strategy, global financial operations, investor relations and financial planning for the global organisation and will join in the new year from his current role as chief investment officer at Mombak, a Brazilian fund manager. Newbery will focus on financial strategy, control, performance and balance sheet management specific to the bank’s UK operations. Previously he was CFO and head of business management, investment banking at Barclays Investment Bank.

Invinity Energy Systems has appointed Adam Howard as CFO and executive director on the board effective 9 December. He was previously a director of banking and investments at the National Wealth Fund, responsible for leading the financing of energy and infrastructure projects in support of the UK’s net zero transition. He is also a non executive director of mining company Cornish Lithium plc.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has strengthened its board with the appointment of Charlie Parker, Eva Lindholm and Simon O’Regan as non-executive directors. The appointments follow an extensive recruitment process seeking candidates with actuarial, investment management and public sector experience. Parker was previously chief executive and head of the public service for the government of Jersey. Lindholm has had a broad executive career in the financial services industry, having worked at JPMorgan for 27 years and UBS for 12 years. She has significant leadership experience in investment banking, corporate banking and wealth management. O’Regan is a chartered actuary with over 40 years’ experience in the insurance, pensions and asset management industries.