Grant Thornton UK LLP has appointed partners Philippa Hill and Vijay Rathour as UK practice heads to continue the team’s ambitious growth strategy. Hill will lead forensic and investigation services and Rathour will head up cyber and digital investigations, following the imminent retirement of partner Will Davies, who is stepping down as practice leader. Hill specialises in accounting disputes and investigations and is an expert in professional negligence, accounting irregularities and misconduct matters with more than 20 years’ experience. Rathour is a former barrister and solicitor, and digital forensics expert. He is also an expert adviser to the United Nations on cyber-crime and ransomware and a member of the ICAEW digital assets working party addressing developing cryptocurrency initiatives.

RSM UK has appointed Alex Fraser as a director to head up its people and change offering within its consulting practice. She has over 25 years’ experience in business transformation and maximising people’s performance at all levels within national and multinational businesses. At RSM, she will help clients identify and understand change and people related challenges to develop and implement strategies to drive growth and improve performance. Fraser joins from Hays, where she was group head of organisational change, and previously held roles at PwC and KPMG.

Crowe has promoted Diviya Ramaiya as a partner in the business solutions team, focusing on the real estate and professional practices. She has more than 20 years’ experience providing business advice and support to companies and groups in the UK and internationally. Ramaiya will provide management advisory services, guidance on systems and process improvements with the aim of reducing operational costs with provision of real-time data, on-site finance teams and resourcing. She will also support Crowe’s equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives and is a race, ethnicity and cultural heritage (REACH) champion.

Prime Accountants Group has made seven promotions, including Emma Pithouse, Natalija Carlsson and Joe Laird to manager roles. Shorif Masu, Jack Holder and Luke Hall have been promoted to audit and accounts seniors, while Ellie Steanes has taken on a new role in audit and accounts. Rachel Clarke has joined the firm’s tax team as a VAT adviser.

EY has appointed a new EY Global independent non-executive (INE), Duane M DesParte, who will join the EY Global Governance Council (GGC), effective 1 June 2024. He is a former board member of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and was acting chair of the PCAOB from June 2021 to January 2022. Before joining PCAOB, he was corporate controller at Exelon Corporation, then a Fortune 100 company in the energy industry.

Allinial Global has appointed Nimesh Shah, CEO of Blick Rothenberg, to the EMEIA board. As the only UK representative on the board, he will bring the perspective from a UK standpoint, where there has been considerable recent change and disruption in the accountancy sector. The firm’s partnership with Allinial Global is an important strategic focus and key to growing its international business.

HLB, the global advisory and accounting network, has appointed Stephanie Rix as chief people officer and a member of the executive team, succeeding Marina Kooijmans who will stay in post until her retirement in July. Rix will focus on enhancing HLB's employer brand to attract top talent, implementing consistent learning and development programmes, and fostering an inclusive culture. Previously she was managing director and executive coach at Life’s Work Consulting and non executive director of the Career Development Institute.

The Church Commissioners for England has appointed Poppy Allonby as chief investment officer, where she will lead the responsible investment of the Church Commissioners’ £10bn endowment fund, which provides funding to support the ministry of the Church of England. She will assume her new position at the end of September. Allonby is a senior financial services executive with more than 20 years of experience in strategic leadership and investment roles. She joins the Church Commissioners from T Rowe Price, where she is currently vice president and head of the ESG enablement remit.

Ocorian has appointed Craig Buick as chief financial officer as it continues to strengthen its leadership team. He will be responsible for controllership, finance business partnership, business intelligence, group legal and M&A. He has more than 30 years’ experience in senior financial services roles around the world, in fast growth companies. Previously, he was group CEO and group CFO at Cabot Credit Management. Buick originally trained at PwC.