Grant Thornton has promoted seven senior professionals to equity partner, including Rob Turner and Alasdair Grainger in the consulting practice, Tom Middleton and Joel Strange to co-lead economic consulting, Adam Hughes in debt and capital advisory, and Emma Young and Ben Langford in business risk services. The promotions reflect  the firm’s model where all partners hold equity unless they opt for a salaried route.

Bishop Fleming has appointed Giles Derry as its first non-executive chair. In this newly created role, he will support the firm’s leadership and partner group as the private equity backed firm accelerates its growth strategy, including M&A activity. Chartered accountant Derry brings extensive leadership and investment experience having held senior executive roles at Kroll, most recently on the global executive team as president of the risk advisory business, where he remains as a part-time senior advisor. This followed Kroll’s acquisition of Blackrock Expert Services Group, where he was CEO. He originally trained at Arthur Andersen.

MHA has appointed Anna-Marie Chand as head of talent acquisition, Leanne Wilkins is promoted to director of transformation and change, and Nicola Clark joins the AIM listed firm as a partner in the restructuring practice in the north west. Chand will be responsible for strengthening talent strategy, employer brand positioning, and building future-ready hiring capabilities. Previously she headed up talent acquisition at Blick Rothenberg. Talent and HR specialist Wilkins has been with MHA for eight years and will focus on change management, aligning business priorities with operational improvements and staff engagement. Clark is a qualified and licensed insolvency practitioner, and brings over 20 years’ experience in restructuring and recovery, advising lenders and the directors and shareholders of businesses facing challenges. Previously she was a partner at Azets. Pictured: Nicola Clark

Dains has appointed Remy Lammertsma as chief financial officer strengthening the private equity backed group’s financial leadership and governance. He brings more than 20 years of international management experience, with a proven track record in transforming finance functions, leading M&A and driving shareholder value for private equity partners. Most recently, he was CFO at Expereo, a PE-backed global technology business headquartered in Amsterdam, where he also led M&A strategy.

Wbg has appointed David Shadwell as head of business advisory services joining the the firm’s leadership team. He brings a wealth of experience helping founders and leadership teams turn financial data into strategic growth through digital transformation. Previously he was founder of Luciuss, after spending five years as a partner at CT Accountants.

Sumer Northern Ireland has promoted Dr Phil Chambers to associate partner and Adam Stuart to senior manager in the innovation tax relief team, and Aoife Morgan to associate partner in the forensic accounting team. Dr Chambers brings extensive sector experience, including work across the pharmaceutical, aerospace and software sectors, while Stuart specialises in software and information technology and Morgan in assisting clients in the quantification of claims for loss of earnings, pensions and losses from personal injury and medical negligence claims.

PrimeGlobal has appointed Oliver Grosse-Brauckmann as regional executive director for EMEA to will support the association’s 150 member firms and lead the delivery of the new long-term strategy. He brings deep international leadership experience as well as global projects expertise with senior roles at accounting networks. Throughout his career, he has focused on strengthening cross-border collaboration and improving consistency and quality. Grosse-Brauckmann joins from Nexia, where he was chief regions officer.   

BRG has appointed Alessandro Steggall in London and John Scaccia in Dubai as managing consultants to expand the business insurance claims (BIC) practice in EMEA. Steggall has worked extensively on large and complex losses for policyholders, insurers and reinsurers, both domestically and internationally, and joins from Kroll where he was a senior manager. A fluent Arabic speaker and chartered accountant, Scaccia has spent over a decade in the Gulf region, working on major business interruption cases and commercial disputes, most recently as an independent financial consultant.

Signicat has appointed Ray Ryan as UK country manager to lead digital identity verification strategy. He brings more than 25 years of experience in regtech and fintech space, including PassFort and ComplyAdvantage, Ryan has worked closely with financial institutions on fraud prevention, KYC, and digital onboarding. He will be based in London.

Professor Brian Bell has been appointed as chief economic advisor to HM Treasury and head of the government economic service, replacing Sam Beckett, who was in the role for two years until she retired in early 2026. Professor Bell will be principal advisor to the chancellor Rachel Reeves and PM Keir Starmer on macroeconomic and fiscal policy, leading the Treasury’s economics function. An academic, he is currently professor of economics and head of department at King’s Business School, a faculty of King’s College London, and chair of government quango, the Migration Advisory Committee and trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He has previously held roles at the Bank of England and the IMF, as well as in the private sector as an economist and trader, including at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities and Tudor Investment. He will take up the role on 9 March.