Clive Owen LLP has promoted James Davies to audit and assurance partner and Jonathan Doyle to accounts and business advisory partner. Davies specialises in owner managed businesses and corporates, particularly working on setting up group structures, and is based in the Darlington office. Doyle advises a diverse range of clients, including owner managed businesses and large corporations, and first joined the firm as a graduate trainee in 2007. Joe Vera-Sanso has been promoted to corporate finance executive based in the Middlesborough office. He began his career in business development at charity National Energy Action, before moving to finance and qualifying as a chartered management accountant.

Menzies LLP has expanded the deal advisory team with the appointment of Greg Cox as a partner based in London, and Dominic Lowbridge joins as a director working across the Solent and London offices. Cox brings significant experience in lead advisory, having advised shareholders, management teams and private equity investors on a wide range of transactions. Prior to joining Menzies, he held senior roles at FRP Advisory and Deloitte. Lowbridge will focus on financial due diligence and has spent more than a decade in corporate finance, most recently at RSM where he was an associate director, transaction services.

S&W has appointed Andrew Jacobs FCSI as a partner in its advisory consulting team to launch and lead the new S&W regulatory consulting service. He has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services regulation, working across a number of sub-sectors within financial services and adjacent sectors, dealing with a range of complex regulatory issues for clients both in the UK and internationally. He joins from global legal services firm DWF where he was a partner.

Armstrong Watson has appointed Kerry Pearson as restructuring and insolvency director. A licensed insolvency practitioner with more than 30 years’ experience, Pearson has extensive expertise in dealing with corporate and personal insolvencies across a variety of sectors and industries and will head up the restructuring and insolvency team in Newcastle. She is also vice chair of the R3 north east regional committee. Previously she was a partner at Azets.

Kilsby Williams has launched a forensic accounting and expert witness service, to be co-headed by newly appointed partner Chris Hatcher. The division will be led by Hatcher and existing partner Huw Sheppard, a specialist in expert witness valuations. Hatcher has a wealth of experience in forensic accounting and expert witness services, and is a chartered accountant with both audit and probate licenses. Previously he was a consultant at MHA in Cardiff, and prior was a partner at Watts Gregory before the firms merged.

ICAEW has appointed Parjinder Basra as lay chair of the ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB) for a three-year term. He has twice served as acting chair, and now succeeds former chair, Paul Brooks. He has extensive experience in public sector leadership in policing and healthcare, having spent a large proportion of his career in policing in various roles before leaving as a business support director in 2016. The IRB oversees ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary functions.