Armstrong Watson has strengthened its Yorkshire audit team with the appointment of Steve Williams as audit and assurance partner. He joins the firm after 10 years with TC Group (previously Murray Harcourt), where he was an audit partner, and, prior to that, worked for RSM and KPMG. Having worked in audit and assurance for more than 20 years, his experience ranges from audits of FTSE 100 listed companies to family, owner-managed and private equity-backed businesses. He will provide audit and assurance services to the firm’s owner-managed and family business client portfolio, along with general client service offering across all disciplines, while assisting partners Matt Osbourne, Simon Turner and Rohan Day to run the Yorkshire audit practice.

EY has appointed Matt Taylor as a partner in its UK financial crime consulting business. Based in London, he will focus on expanding EY’s financial crime remediation and operations capabilities, focusing on clients in the banking, payments, fintech and insurance sectors, working with a finance crime team of 150 people. With a strong regulation background, he will also advise on broader financial crime change and transformation work. Taylor joins EY from Protiviti, where he worked for 18 years with many of the world’s largest global banks, and most recently led the firm’s European financial services practice.

KPMG UK has appointed Phil Murden as office senior partner in Leeds to lead the firm’s remit in the northeast and takes over from Euan West, who after four years in the role will move to lead KPMG UK’s private enterprise business. As part of this new role, Murden will lead 1,100 colleagues in the Sovereign Square office. His appointment will become effective on 1 March 2024. He will maintain his role as a consulting partner while leading the growth of the firm’s audit, consulting, deals, legal and tax practices in the region. A qualified accountant, he held roles at the Treasury and Livingbridge before re-joining KPMG 10 years ago.

Evelyn Partners has appointed Stephen Drew to lead its professional services team in Cambridge in a newly expanded role. He has been with the firm for 25 years. As regional managing partner, he is also responsible for leading the professional services team in the firm’s Birmingham office, where he has trebled headcount and revenue in the last four years. The appointment follows the acquisition of Ashcroft Partnership in April 2023 which gave the group a presence for its professional services business in Cambridge.

Mercer & Hole has strengthened its corporate and business tax team with the appointment of partner Balbor Sundar. She rejoined the firm in February 2024 from RSM UK where she was a tax director. Sundar has more than 30 years’ experience of advising entrepreneurial and ambitious businesses providing planning advice that minimises tax liabilities and maximising claims such as capital allowances. She has particular strengths in the tax issues that arise from group restructurings, international issues including certificates of residence and the application of double tax treaties.

Grant Thornton UK LLP has appointed two senior economists, Dr Maureen Paul and Joel Strange, to its rapidly expanding economics consulting team, to focus on energy, infrastructure and trade economics. Dr Paul is a former senior civil servant with significant analytical and policy experience in economic regulation, working with UK regulators. Previously she was chief economist at Ofgem. Strange is an economist specialising in infrastructure and international trade. He advises in the areas of strategy, policy, regulation, competition, pricing and economic impact, including in an expert witness capacity.

BKL has appointed Ryan Bevan as trust director in their private client service team. His expertise covers all areas of trusts, with specialisms in offshore trusts, non-UK trustees, landed estates, employment related trusts and the HMRC Trust Registration Service. He joins BKL from Deloitte, with over a decade of experience advising high net worth individuals, large multinational trustees and families. Bevan is the newest member of BKL’s dedicated trusts & estates team, joining BKL’s first director of trusts, Lindsay House. They form part of BKL’s broader private client team assisting clients with family wealth planning, non-resident and non-domicile tax implications, wills, probate and personal tax compliance.

Kilsby Williams has announced a trio of senior level promotions to director roles within its tax and business services teams. Lucy Creese and Kaye Morris have been promoted to director in the tax team, while Zak Wright has been promoted to director in the business services team. Creese and Morris are both experienced corporation tax and company tax specialists, regularly undertaking compliance and tax planning work for a variety of clients including SMEs. Wright has qualified as a chartered accountant since joining the firm nine years ago and has honed his skills in the provision of statutory financial audits, accounts and due diligence work.

Carpenter Box audit senior Nick Downton is celebrating a remarkable achievement in his accountancy career, recently passing all 15 ICAEW ACA exams at the first attempt. Crawley based Downton joined Carpenter Box in 2019 as a graduate and he is now a key member of the firm’s assurance & advisory group. In this role, he undertakes audits for medium-sized companies across a variety of business sectors, as well as managing a number of trainees.