KPMG has appointed Nicola Quayle to head the firm’s Manchester office from 1 October 2017. Quayle is currently head of KPMG’s audit practice across the North of England and has been with the firm for 21 years and a partner for nine. She takes over from Jonathan Holt, who was recently appointed to head up KPMG’s UK Financial Services practice.

RSM has appointed 288 trainees bringing its total headcount to over 3,600 people across the UK. The new intake of graduate and school leaver trainees will be working across 30 of its UK offices and will be within the firm’s tax, audit, corporate finance, risk, restructuring advisory, financial reporting and IT teams. Fifty of the new recruits are school leavers.

Michael Fox has joined Kingston Smith as a senior corporate solicitor. He specialises in advising companies, from SMEs to larger corporates, and individuals on corporate and commercial matters of all types, across a wide range of sectors. He is also experienced in acting for clients on AIM flotations, private equity investments, shareholder matters and joint ventures.

Mark McRae has joined Martin Aitken & Co as director of the firm’s business advisory and accounting division. He joins from Scott-Moncrieff where he led its Glasgow business advisory team servicing a wide portfolio of clients from start-ups up to growing and established businesses.

Haslers has appointed 11 members as part of its ongoing growth strategy. Recent hires include business development manager, Anna McGown, and business systems manager, James Wootton as well as a tax executive. Five members have joined the firm’s business service group with an additional two joining as office administrators. The payroll team has also grown with the addition of Ariya Kulasinghe as a payroll administrator.

Hereford-based accountancy firm, Thorne Widgery, has taken on three trainees. Oliver Parkes, Evan Cooper and Michael Ambler have all joined the firm and are to undergo studies to become a chartered accountant. Parkes joins the practice having completed a science degree at the University of Nottingham and will study towards the ACCA qualification. Cooper comes to the firm from college as an apprentice having recently sat and passed A Levels and will now sit the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) exams. Ambler is a mathematics graduate from the University of Cardiff, who will now study towards the ACCA qualification.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, as chair of the Global Economy Meeting (GEM) and the Economic Consultative Committee, after consultations with members of the GEM. The appointment takes effect on 1 December 2017. Carney will succeed Agustín Carstens, who will step down when he takes up the post of general manager of the BIS at the beginning of December. Carstens has chaired the ECC and the GEM since 1 July 2013.