Grant Thornton has appointed Chris Stefani as partner and chief financial officer, a newly created role following the Cinven private equity deal. He will also be a member of the strategic leadership team and take an observer role on the main board. Stefani brings a wealth of experience in financial leadership across professional services, and was previously CFO at international law firm DWF, where he played a pivotal role in the firm’s IPO and transition following PE investment. He started his career at EY, where he spent nearly two decades, including as finance director of EMEIA Advisory and UK&I finance director, statutory and regulatory. Pictured: Chris Stefani 

Saffery LLP has elected Darren Drake as its new managing partner, to succeed Matthew Burton when he steps down next April after eight years at the help. With over 25 years’ experience advising clients in the media sector, Drake joined Saffery in 2012, following the firm’s acquisition of the film and TV team from RSM Tenon. As head of the London corporate group, he has been a member of Saffery’s management and leadership boards since April 2024, and leads the film and TV team at the firm. Bolton will remain as a partner after the transition period.

RSM has appointed Alistair Haley as partner and Andrew Parker as director, both based in London in the transactions tax team. Haley has nearly 25 years’ experience as a tax advisor, specialising in large corporate and private equity transactions. At RSM he will provide tax structuring and due diligence advice on PE investments across a broad range of industries, as part of the wider deal services offering. Previously he was a partner at KPMG, where he led the London financial services M&A tax practice. Parker brings over 30 years’ experience in UK and international corporate tax, and was previously a partner at Deloitte.

HaysMac has appointed Stephen Mason as a partner, joining the transaction advisory services team to lead the private market transactions and due diligence practice. Mason brings 17 years of experience of financial due diligence, transaction support and deal-advisory work, and in his new role, he will develop and grow HaysMac’s private market transactions strategy, supporting investors and businesses through every stage of the deal cycle, from initial assessment to post-transaction integration. Previously he was a partner in the transaction services team at RSM.

BDO has promoted 24 partners, taking the partnership to more than 500, with over 40% women, supporting BDO’s commitment of achieving a 30% female partnership by the end of 2030. In the audit practice, Rachel Brittain, Robert Conner, Lauren Harrison, Chris Johnson and Rupert Livingstone are promoted to partner, with Oivind Andresen, Christopher Beveridge, Bennie Steenkamp and Ross Swan in the consulting, risk & outsourcing team, and in tax, Ece Akser, Laura Burton, Gareth Hill, John Middlemass, Kristi Middleton, Natasha Patel and Kamay Shipp, and in the deals business Helena Cartmell, Gemma Flanagan, Jeff Gardner, Matthew Savage and David Wentholt. Central operations sees three partners across governance, ethics, quality & risk, and IT teams, Catherine Kewish, Nik Miller and Rupak Vasishta. In addition, nearly 2,000 staff have been promoted at all levels across the firm.

Cooper Parry appoints Russell Brooks as a partner in the indirect tax team. He brings over two decades of indirect tax expertise working in-house in major multinationals, as well at the Big Four and HMRC. He specialises in tax complexity, optimising indirect tax cash flow and process governance. He joins from Macquarie Group where he was director, head of tax commodities and global markets EMEA. He started his career at HMRC before moving to PwC and KPMG. On the audit front, Sarah Harries has been appointed as audit director, while Callum Henderson is promoted to audit director for tech & high growth, and Sakina Rashid to audit director to expand audit capability in London and south region. Harries brings 12 years of experience specialising in auditing law firms and partnerships, and will focus on private business and professional services. Previously Harris was a senior audit manager at BDO.

Azets has appointed Asif Ahmed as audit director, and promoted Meg Walker and Joel Fentem to director. Ahmed brings over 10 years’ experience in technical accounting and complex group audits, specialising in IFRS and US GAAP, and will be based in the Wolverhampton office. He joins from BDO where he was an audit senior manager. Walker has played an integral role in the growth of the Wolverhampton audit team and in her new role, she will continue to work with a wide range of clients, and has particular experience in owner-managed SMEs, charities, and academies. Fentem is based out of the Birmingham office and works with a diverse portfolio of corporate clients, from football clubs to airports.

Deel has appointed Joe Kauffman as president and chief financial officer, replacing Philippe Bouaziz, who has served as CFO since the company’s inception, and will take on a newly created role of executive chairman and chief strategy officer at the global payroll platform. Kauffman joins Deel following more than a decade of leadership at Credit Karma, where he served as CFO, president, and CEO.  

IRIS Software has appointed Jonathan Priestley to a newly created role as general manager, global accountancy solutions and transformation, while Marissa Carlson has been hired as chief marketing officer (CMO) to oversee global marketing, taking over from Priestley who was covering the role on an interim basis. Priestley will drive market strategy, product positioning and commercial enablement for the group’s accountancy business, and has been with the business for six years. Carlson brings 20 years of experience scaling high growth businesses and was previously CMO at TigerConnect. Both positions are US based.