Mazars has appointed Lionel Cazali as partner within the financial services team in London. Cazali joins the firm from Deloitte in Paris, where he was a partner specialising in insurance audit. He has over 20 years of experience, much of it gained at Mazars between 1995 and 2015, where he progressed from trainee to head of financial services for Mazars Ltd. in Zürich. A trained actuary and auditor with a specialism in the insurance sector, Cazali will focus on developing both audit and consulting services for insurers in the UK.

Saffery Champness has hired Ian Johnson as a director based out of the London office with responsibility for a national remit. He specialises in advising law firms on areas including financial reporting, statutory accounts and audit issues. He joins the professional practices group from Crowe UK where he was a director. He has previously worked for Hazlewoods and KPMG. He is also a member of the Executive Council with the Institute of Legal Finance and Management (ILFM) and a member of the ICAEW Solicitors’ Community Committee.

AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) has appointed Vernon Anderson as the organisation’s 38th President. Anderson will hold the office of AAT president until September 2019. He succeeds Nicky Fisher, and will be supported by John Thornton as his vice-president. Anderson’s career background includes time in the British Army and in the plastics industry. He is a former administration and finance manager at a local town council, where in 2004 he first trained in what was then AAT’s Level 3 and Level 4 (now advanced diploma and professional diploma) core qualifications to support his role. He became a qualified town clerk with legal responsibilities in both finance and council administration, and continued in similar roles while also being a licensed practitioner for over ten years, until his early retirement in 2018.

William Brooks, managing director at Eximus Capital, has been announced as the next vice president of ICAEW and will take office from June 2019. Brookes completed his training in 1980 with Dearden Farrow. He then joined Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG) in 1981 where he stayed for five years, specialising in banking and securities work. He went on to establish his own consulting firm in 1991, providing business planning, corporate finance advisory and fund management services under FSA regulation. Brooks has been heavily involved with ICAEW since 2000. He served for nine years as an examiner for the advanced case study and more recently as a member of the disciplinary committee. Brooks will serve as cice-president from June 2019 to June 2020, subject to his formal election at the June council meeting. He will serve as ICAEW president from June 2020 to June 2021.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAS) has appointed a partner from Johnston Carmichael to its charities panel. Scott Jeffrey, an audit partner based at the firm’s Inverness office, has been appointed onto the sector panel, which is responsible for representing ICAS on matters impacting  the UK’s charity sector. It provides guidance to members who work for, advise and assist charities, and charities themselves, offering support on accountancy and related matters.

The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has elected Kim Gubler as chair, effective 1 January 2019. Gubler, who has been on PASA’s Board since inception, takes over from Margaret Snowdon, who will remain part of PASA in the newly created non-executive role of president. Gubler became deputy chair in 2017. Prior to this, she was a PASA board director and former chair of the joint Standards and Accreditation Committee. She is recognised by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) as a defined contributions (DC) specialist and is also a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute, where she sits on the examining board and is a fellowship network ambassador. 

Report by Amy Austin