Deloitte has hired James Hilburn as a director to lead the firm’s new ESG mergers and acquisitions offering in the financial advisory practice. He joins Deloitte from Carbon Intelligence where he was director of financial services and worked with asset owners, fund managers and private equity firms to optimise their business and portfolio's response to ESG. He has also had M&A and corporate venturing leadership roles in Deloitte Africa and managed a pan-African impact investment fund.

PwC has hired Robert Elstone as a senior adviser in the firm’s sports business advisory team on a part-time basis. He joins PwC from Super League Rugby where as executive chairman he played a key role in securing the organisation’s independence, restructure and rebrand. His time in charge saw a significant growth in both TV audiences and commercial revenues, and attracted a substantial offer of private equity investment. Prior to joining Super League, Elstone spent 13 years at Everton Football Club, the majority as chief executive.

RSM UK has appointed Thomas Pugh as its new UK economist. The appointment will strengthen the firm’s analytical capabilities to address the rapidly changing needs of its clients. It also expands RSM’s ability to provide cross-border market economic analytics that are aligned to its existing capabilities in the US, led by RSM US chief economist Joe Brusuelas. Pugh, who will specialise in the UK’s real economy business markets, will be based out of the firm’s London Farringdon Street headquarters. He joins from Capital Economics, a leading independent economic research company where he specialised in analysing the UK economy and financial markets, as well as commodity markets.

Murray Beith Murray has made a number of internal promotions and external hires in the firm’s tax group. Laura Brown, who has been with the private client law firm since 2016, has been promoted to director of tax. Brown, an accountant by profession, is a tax specialist and has over 25 years’ experience in private client wealth management, and providing comprehensive tax advice in relation to complex high value matters for individuals, trustees and executors. David Windram has been promoted from senior tax assistant to tax manager. He has been with the firm for three years, and previously worked for several years with an Edinburgh accountancy firm, specialising in personal tax. Charles Adams has recently joined the firm as senior tax assistant. He is responsible for both tax compliance work and tax planning in relation to individuals, trusts and partnerships.

West country accountancy firm Old Mill has appointed Lucy Bennett as the firm’s youngest ever head of office. The 24-year-old will run the Yeovil office where her role is to encourage collaboration and engagement among the teams and support Old Mill’s work within the local community, alongside her role as client adviser. She has worked at Old Mill for six years, and during that time has built up strong relationships with clients and colleagues.

Encompass Corporation, the provider of intelligently automated know your customer (KYC) solutions, has appointed financial crime compliance professional Michael Horsnell as business development director. With more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Horsnell has focused on areas including operations, transformation and risk and control and governance. His expertise covers client onboarding, financial crime and anti-money laundering (AML). He has held senior roles at institutions including Citi, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS Investment Bank.

Interpath Advisory, formerly KPMG Restructuring, has appointed Ben Smith as a director in its debt advisory team. He joins Interpath Advisory from Bibby Financial Services, where he led the corporate sales team to deliver a range of asset-based lending solutions through its intermediary network to UK SMEs. At Interpath he will work in a team led by managing director John Miesner. The team advises organisations throughout all stages of their fundraising journey – from refinancing existing facilities at maturity, through to funding initiatives that fuel organic growth or raising capital to support acquisitions. The firm has also hired consumer market and retail specialist Christine Cross as a special adviser on the advisory committee. She has experience in a range of advisory and non-executive roles with consulting to retailing and manufacturing businesses, plus academic institutions.

Forecast, an AI-native platform for project and resource management, has hired Simone Goodman as chief financial officer. Her appointment at Forecast is a new role for the business, intended to support the acceleration of growth and entry of Forecast into the US market. Previously she was CFO of Peakon, where she led the finance team and supported a 30x valuation growth in under four years, from Series A to its $700M (£460m) sale to Workday. 

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