BDO has appointed Sarah Joannidi as an audit partner in its Bristol office. Joannidi joins from RSM and has also held previous positions at KPMG. She specialises in the provision of audit to international businesses and has extensive experience in overseas reporting requirements in relation to US GAAP and GAAS.

Esther Wood and Simon Sutcliffe have joined Blick Rothenberg as partners. Wood joins the firm’s business group, specialising in audit, accounting and business advisory. Her client list mainly includes high net worth individuals including international artists, and small to medium sized companies, many of them owner managed and across a broad range of sectors. Sutcliffe joins the tax team, specialising in customs and excise duties and customs advisory, as well as indirect tax disputes and litigation. He advises organisations that are in dispute with UK and overseas customs authorities and law enforcement agencies. The firm has also appointed Fiona Fernie as a partner in its tax investigations and dispute resolution team. She joins from Pinsent Masons where she headed up their tax investigations team. She has over 30 years’ experience working on resolving disputes and queries raised by HMRC.

BDO International has made three global appointments within the leadership team. BDO's current CEO EMEA, Anders Heede, is taking on the newly-created role of chief operating officer. Replacing Heede is Trond-Morten Lindberg, currently CEO of BDO Norway. Albert Lopez, presently Southeast assurance regional managing partner with BDO USA will become the new CEO Americas as of 1 January 2018, replacing Keith Farlinger.

Alicia Crisp has been promoted to partner in MHA MacIntyre Hudson’s London office. Crisp joined the firm in 2007 as a trainee, became a manager in 2012 and was later promoted to director in 2016. Her clients cover a range of sectors including include academies, construction companies, financial advisers and a variety of new start-ups. She leads projects covering a range of areas such as cash flow forecasting, long term strategic planning, preparing businesses for a sale and managing the move to cloud accounting. The firm has also appointed Edward Hooper as a director in its corporate finance team. Hooper will be responsible for leading the firm’s transaction services offering in London, acting for small and medium-sized businesses both in the UK and overseas.

Streets Media Chartered Accountants has appointed Rory Colhoun as a director. In his new role he will look after various clients such as freelancers, performance acts and film and post house production companies, many of whom are located in London’s west end or at the film studios in and around London.

Professor Elizabeth Gammie has been reappointed to the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB). The Board sets accounting education standards for all the professional accounting bodies around the world and its 18 board members come from across the globe. Gammie, who was first appointed in 2015, will now serve a second three-year term. During her first term she led a task force to provide support materials to the global membership for the implementation of International Education Standard 1: Entry Requirements to Professional Accounting Education Programmes which was published in 2016. She is currently contributing to a task force which is examining professional scepticism.