EY has appointed Annie Graham as UK head of audit and a member of the UK LLP board. She will be responsible for the delivery of audits in the UK, leading a team of more than 6,000 professionals. With nearly 30 years of experience, she is currently UK&I audit chief operating officer, an active audit engagement partner and also a member of the ICAS Council. Graham originally joined EY on a summer internship in 1997 and was made a partner at 29. Graham takes over from Andrew Walton who has led EY’s audit practice for the last four years. Walton will continue to lead audit engagements in the UK and support EY’s approach to audit quality across EMEIA and globally.  

BDO LLP has strengthened its partner offering with three appointments. Richard Watson joins the tax team as partner, responsible for supporting the growth of the tax business in the east of England, with a particular focus on the life sciences and technology sectors. He joins from KPMG where he was a partner and will be based in Cambridge. Oliver Pumfrey also joins the tax team as partner and will provide corporate tax advice to private and public companies. He joins from FTI Consulting, where he was managing director in the EMEA tax practice and will be based in Guildford. Giles Watson joins as a partner in the financial services audit team in London, and has over 20 years’ experience of leading on large audits within the insurance sector. He joins from EY where he was a partner.

KPMG in the UK has appointed Hannah Dobson as head of fintech. She was previously co-head of fintech alongside John Hallsworth, who is retiring from the firm in July 2024. Dobson joined the firm in 2015 and in addition to leading the fintech team she is a partner in KPMG’s indirect tax team.

DSG has appointed Simon Denye as a tax partner in its Liverpool City Centre office. With more than 25 years of tax advisory experience, he has spent his career working across all areas of tax, with a particular focus on owner-managed businesses. His expertise includes group reorganisations, share schemes, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In his new role, Denye will help to develop the tax department and manage his own portfolio of clients. Prior to joining DSG, he spent the first half of his career at KPMG and PwC. Most recently, he was a tax partner at UHY Hacker Young in Manchester.

PwC has invested further in its deals practice with the appointment of Jamie Peel as director in its lead advisory team. He will lead the special situations and restructuring M&A offering across the north of England, working as an integrated part of PwC’s national team in this area. Peel joins PwC from Zeus Capital where as corporate finance director he was responsible for executing complex M&A transactions covering a range of sectors and transaction types. He brings over 10 years of experience working in deals and will be based in PwC’s Manchester office.

TaxAssist Accountants has appointed Nikki Shepherd ACCA as a tax manager in the tax consulting team at the group’s Support Centre in Norwich. She brings a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience, and will support the network of accountants providing specialist tax consulting service to franchisees to offer their clients. Previously she was head of personal tax at Farnell Clarke.

Ryan has appointed Charles Precious as a principal in client services, based in the London office. He will be responsible for creating a sales function to service Ryan’s clients in Europe and Asia-Pacific while collaborating with Ryan’s North American teams. Previously he was a sales director at international consulting firm Leyton.