Haines Watts has appointed four board members including Stephen Lucey, managing partner, Cardiff as group chairman and Donna Bulmer, regional managing partner in the north as group managing partner. Matthew Bracher, regional managing partner in the south west and Ben Loveday, regional managing partner in the south east, both join the board as non-executive directors. The change comes as the group re-focuses its nationwide network of practices to meet growth plans. The new appointments were announced at the annual partner workshop held in Birmingham.

BDO has appointed Craig Wilson as a director in its debt advisory team. He brings more than 21 years’ experience of advising mid-market and institutional real estate clients. His expertise lies in advising clients on raising debt facilities for commercial real estate acquisitions, developments and refinancings. Wilson joins from Knight Frank’s capital advisory team, and previously was a commercial real estate debt originator for three UK banks, including 10 years at Barclays Corporate.

Azets has strengthened its national corporate finance team hiring Chris Archer and Gary Hyem as partners, while internally David Simmons, Stephen Garbett and Nick Barker are promoted to partner. Chartered accountant Archer is a mergers and acquisitions specialist with over 30 years’ experience, most recently at Armstrong Watson. Working across the central region, Hyem has 25 years of experience advising companies and working with owner-managers and private equity-backed businesses. Previously he was a corporate finance director at FRP Advisory. The additions to the partnership team follow Lee Humble’s appointment as UK head of corporate finance and Tony Farmer as executive chair of UK corporate finance.

RSM UK has announced 25 promotions to director. The move highlights the firm’s continued investment into the growth and development of talent from within its own ranks. Dominic Finn, Laura Inglesby, Jo Burns, Konrad Bukowski-Kruszyna and Paul Alton have been promoted in the audit team, while in tax, Rob Pullar, James Smith, Kerrie Willis, Joanna Aitken, Carolyn Risdell, Joanne Torrens, Jason Wellden, become directors. The most promotions were in the consulting team with 11 staff promoted.  The newly promoted directors span the firm’s network of 31 offices, from Bristol all the way to Edinburgh.

Armstrong Watson has made a key appointment in its growing corporate finance team with the hire of new partner David Wilson. He will be based in Newcastle and joins the firm after eight years with Clive Owen LLP, where he was head of corporate finance. In his new role, Wilson will be responsible for delivering M&A transactions for clients across the business. He has 15 years of experience, completing in excess of 100 transactions including management buyouts, trade acquisitions, disposals, private equity investments and numerous restructures.

Shaw Gibbs has promoted Mark Ferguson to IT director and he will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the IT operations, including infrastructure development, cybersecurity, and digital transformation initiatives which are linked to the acquisitive and organic growth of the organisation. He joined the firm in 2006 and has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication and expertise.

DSW Capital, owner of the Dow Schofield Watts brand, has promoted Nicole Burstow, its chief financial officer, to the role of deputy chief executive officer. She will continue to fulfil her responsibilities as CFO. Burstow joined in 2019 as group finance director to oversee the transformation of the business in preparation for its IPO. Previously she had been with Deloitte for over 15 years, latterly as a director. She has been working closely alongside DSW’s existing CEO James Dow, on strategy, recruitment, licensee engagement and operations for some time and the change in title formally recognises her full contribution to the business.

Dow Schofield Watts has expanded its transaction services team in the north west with the appointment of Will Beckley as an executive. He joins from RSM UK where he was an assistant audit manager. A qualified chartered accountant, he will work closely with partners, Catriona Lang, Ed Brentnall and Ros Jones who provide financial due diligence to acquisitive businesses and private equity firms. Declan Littler has also joined the firm as an executive. Previously he was a senior audit associate with PwC.

Interpath Advisory has appointed three managing directors with two promotions from within the business, Stuart Reid, value creation, and Matthew Townsend, transaction services. Louise Smith joins the transaction services business to grow the firm’s deal advisory capabilities across the north, based in Leeds. Previously she was at EY where she co-led the transaction services business in Yorkshire and the northeast. Reid also leads the firm’s ESG commercial impact proposition. Townsend has over 15 years’ experience in delivering financial due diligence service to his primarily private equity client base. The firm has also promoted Peter Crompton, Lorna Ford, Joyce Thomson and Paolo Synesiou to director, and hired Arpit Desai as a director in the M&A tax team. He joins from KPMG, where he worked in the M&A large corporates tax team in London.

Leonard Curtis has appointed David Brown as joint chief operations and financial officer to work alongside group finance director Paul Birks. Brown is a chartered accountant, holds an MBA from Manchester Business School and is a former professional cricketer. Director Carl Faulds has been promoted to a new role as group head of insolvency operations and Nicky Brooks is promoted to head of client relations (north). Darren Robinson has been hired as head of business development and brings significant experience in leading business development teams in insolvency and the finance sector. Stewart Goldsmith and Dane O’Hara have been promoted to newly created director roles. Seven staff have been promoted to associate director, including Daniel Ormerod, Ryan Holdsworth, Stephen Beverley, Danielle Shore, John Buchanan, Phillip Morton, and Sherrelle Scott was made associate director of Leonard Curtis Legal. In total, 37 members of the firm have been promoted.

Hentons Corporate Finance has appointed of Oyin Quadri as corporate finance executive and Humerah Ramzan as corporate finance analyst. Quadri joins the firm from an audit assistant manager role, from a top 10 accountancy practice. Ramzan is joining the firm for her placement year, bringing with her a drive to grow within the corporate finance field. Hentons Corporate Finance is a joint venture with Hentons Chartered Accountants.

MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme), the standards organisation for small-scale domestic renewable energy, has appointed Brian Wright as the company’s first group finance director. He brings a wealth of financial experience to the organisation from his background working in statutory accounting, management accounting, systems migration, governance, and payroll. Since training and qualifying as an ACA accountant at Baker Tilly, Brian has worked for over 15 years across multiple sectors, most recently as financial controller at Cammell Laird.

Global digital transformation company GFT has appointed Priya Lakshmi as chief revenue officer to lead the company’s expansion and strategic initiatives in the UK. Joining from Amazon Web Services (AWS) where she held the role of senior manager for world-wide professional services, Lakshmi was responsible for the team that led large transformation deals across all geographies and industries.