John Kent has joined Deloitte as a partner in its UK banking and capital markets team, where he will co-lead the banking IFRS advisory practice. He joins the firm following six years as global head of IFRS within the asset and structured finance team at HSBC and has 15 years’ experience of providing IFRS advice with particular specialism in financial instruments and structured transactions. His extensive IFRS expertise is supplemented with the practical, regulatory, and commercial experience that comes with a client facing banking role.

Haines Watt has appointed Chris Hird as an associate partner in its Darlington office. After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 2007, Hird has worked with a broad spectrum of businesses and had responsibility for all aspects of accounting and taxation work. In particular, he has a passion for helping owner-managed businesses and SMEs to expand and has, in a previous role, helped one of his clients build a chain of successful pharmacies in the region.

Suzanne Gallagher, head of payroll operations at Armstrong Watson has been elected as a board director for the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP). Her appointment is the first time that the CIPP has had two directors on its Board from the same firm. Gallagher joins fellow Board director and Armstrong Watson director of payroll Karen Thomson.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s (EFRAG) Technical Expert Group (TEG) has appointed Emmanuelle Guyomard and Jed Wrigley as members after Nicolas de Paillerets and Serge Pattyn retire after completing the maximum term of six years. The reappointment of Nicklas Grip as vice chairman and of five other members (Ana Cortez, Guenther Gebhardt, Heinz Hense, Soren Kok Olsen and Andrew Spooner) results in the new EFRAG TEG composition effective 1 April 2018.

Leo Lee FCCA, director of Hong Kong based asset management company Benington Capital Limited, has become the president of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). With over 25 years' experience in accounting, regulation and asset management, Lee is also an independent non-executive director of two Hong Kong listed companies. He has previously worked as a senior civil servant in the Hong Kong government and has also held various posts in the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) Hong Kong, including director of corporate planning, director of licensing and director of finance and administration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appointed of William Duhnke as Chairman and Robert Brown, Kathleen Hamm, James Kaiser, and Duane DesParte as Board members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

The IFRS Foundation has appointed seven trustees. These are:

• Dame Collette Bowe: chairman of the UK Banking Standards Board; board member of the UK Statistics Authority; trustee and chairman of the audit committee of the Nuffield Foundation.
• Larry Leva: global vice-chairman for quality, risk and regulatory at KPMG International.
• Michel Madelain: current vice chairman and former president of Moody’s Investors Service; former partner of EY in France.
• Ross McInnes: chairman of the board of Safran; non-executive director and chair of the audit committee at Eutelsat; non-executive director at Lectra.
• Vinod Rai: former comptroller and auditor general of India; former chairman of the UN Panel of External Auditors.
• Lucrezia Reichlin: professor of economics at London Business School; former director general of research at the European Central Bank; non-executive director of several financial companies.
• Teresa Ko: China chairman and partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; non-executive director of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong; chairman of the Standing Committee on Disciplined Services Salaries and Conditions of Service in Hong Kong.