Blick Rothenberg has promoted four new partners, Louisa Constanti, Simon Lewis, Mark Edser and Tom Dickinson, as well as a further 65 promotions across the firm. Constanti has been promoted to partner in practice management and people director to focus on culture, talent strategy and organisational growth. Lewis has been promoted to partner in financial services, and specialises in financial services audit, focusing on private equity and private capital firms. Finance director Edser has been promoted to partner in practice management. Dickinson has been promoted to partner in audit, accounting & outsourcing, and works predominantly with mid-market international businesses.

Armstrong Watson has appointed Gary Rowson as a partner in its private client tax team. He originally trained as a tax inspector with HMRC and brings more than 25 years’ experience in the tax profession, including time as a partner at Baker Tilly and in specialist tax advisory businesses. He joins from YMU Business Management where he was a director of tax, focused on advising individuals and businesses in the music, entertainment, and sports sector.

EY has appointed Sue Dawe as head of EY Scotland, replacing Ally Scott, who has been in the position for the last six years. Dawe, who currently leads the firm’s Scottish financial services business, has been appointed its new Scotland managing partner, with responsibility for the leadership and direction of the entire EY business across the country. Scott has taken up a new role within EY as the firm’s UK & Ireland clients & industries leader, and will continue his client work locally in the corporate and private equity deals market as a M&A partner.

Xeinadin has appointed Kevin Dangerfield as chief financial officer (CFO) to support its growth amid continued growth and integration of new firms across the UK & Ireland. He brings over three decades of senior financial experience, most recently as CFO at cloud services specialist Nasstar, and has worked across multinational manufacturing and technology companies, including as finance director at FTSE 250 firm Morgan Advanced Materials, before working at Laird and the AA. He originally trained as a chartered accountant at PwC.

BT Group plc has announced that after nine years as group chief financial officer (CFO), Simon Lowth plans to retire from the business. As part of an orderly succession plan and following a comprehensive global search, BT has appointed Patricia Cobian to succeed him. Cobian is currently CFO at Virgin Media O2, and has been with the Telefonica O2 Europe group for nearly 20 years in various senior finance roles. She will join the BT Group board and its executive committee in the summer of 2026, with Lowth set to retire following a managed handover. Cobian was recently included in Management Today’s Women in Leadership Power List.

Kreston Global has appointed Meera Rajah, partner at James Cowper Kreston, as the chair to the global indirect taxes group. She will be responsible for building up the existing offering of the indirect tax community through the sharing of technical and practical indirect tax expertise across the global network. Rajah has almost 30 years of experience in the field, having started her indirect tax career when she trained and qualified with HM Customs and Excise, now HMRC. She joined James Cowper Kreston in 2012, establishing a successful tax advisory team, which she now leads as partner. 

Azets has announced the retirement of Duncan Swift, restructuring and insolvency partner. Swift joined Azets in 2020 and, alongside audit partner Laura Pingree, co-founded the group’s first Plymouth office, setting it up from the ground up, and growing the business to a team of more than 40. Swift started his career at PwC then KPMG, before becoming a partner at Grant Thornton, then senior roles at RSM Tenon and Moore.

Latham & Watkins has appointed Estelle Philippi as a partner in the transactional tax practice in the Paris office. Philippi has significant experience advising across a number of high growth sectors, including technology, healthcare, and life sciences. She also regularly advises clients on tax-related litigation and complex matters involving French and international tax law. Philippi joins from White & Case where she was an associate lawyer.

Companies House has named Andy King as CEO, to replace outgoing head Louise Smyth in September. A career civil servant, King is currently chief operating officer, Defence Business Services (DBS) at the Ministry of Defence, and leads the DBS executive team, where he has worked since 2023. Prior to that he was operations delivery director at the rural payments agency of Defra, and a member of the executive team. The appointment was made following an open competition overseen by the Civil Service Commission.

Kani Payments has appointed Panos Savvas as chief technology officer (CTO). He brings over 20 years’ experience in global fintech and banking, including founding and exiting a real-time financial data venture, and leading product and engineering teams across the UK, US, Europe and Latin America. Previously he was head of product at Insignis Cash.