Mazars has promoted Adam Simpson to partner in the firm’s receivable management team, based in Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh. Simpson has worked at the firm for five years and alongside his new role as partner he will also continue in his position as director of receivables management, where he implements a range of outsourcing services such as account management payroll and reporting, credit management and debt collection.

David Ellis has been appointed, by Wilkins Kennedy, to head a new unit being established in Maidstone. He joins the firm from a local Tunbridge Wells firm where he specialised in corporate and acquisition finance. In his new role he will be accompanied by Reece Wooten who is relocating from Wilkin Kennedy’s corporate finance department in London.

Mike Norris has joined Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) as a non-executive board member to provide expertise to the Executive Agency of the Scottish government. Previously, Norris has headed up the UK, Canadian and Dutch operations for Max Recovery, a purchaser of consumer receivables where customers have been sequestrated or have signed a protected trust deed. He began his career in the insolvency sector in 1984 when he joined the Insolvency Service. He has also represented the UK government on a number of insolvency working groups at the European Commission and on the insolvency working group at the UN Commission on international trade law.

Hilary Evans has become a director in Hazlewoods legal team, joining from accountancy firm, Tayabali Tomlin. She brings with her over 20 years’ experience providing audit, financial reporting, investment modelling and advisory services. Evans trained at KPMG where she qualified in 1997 and then moved on to an operational role at the global manufacturer Avery Denniso.

Rotherham Taylor has taken on trainee Nicola Lawrenson, after previously gaining the MAAT accounting qualification and the IAB payroll qualification. Lawrenson will now begin working towards the ACA accounting qualification.

Mateusz Benedict and Kostas Nicolaides have joined Grunberg & Co, based in Golders Green. Benedict joins as an audit and accounts semi-senior, having previously trained trained at another London practice for two years where he worked on company valuations and financial modelling. While at the firm he will continue working towards his ACA qualification. Nicolaides joins the bookkeeping department where he will be assisting with VAT returns, management accounts, reconciliations, cash flows and budgets. He has more than 15 years’ experience working in accounts.

Thomas Westcott has appointed Sheldon Cole as a tax partner in the firm’s Somerset office. Cole specialises in providing personal and corporation tax advice to high net worth individuals, landlords, entrepreneurs and companies and their directors and shareholders. He qualified as a chartered accountant and tax adviser with EY and joins the firm after eight years at another regional firm.

RCL Consultancy has appointed Lewis Cruickshank and Marc Carpenter as regulated consultants within the northern consultancy team. Cruickshank joins from HSBS where he was premier relationship manager. In his new position he will be advising on pension, investments and protection products. Carpenter has worked in financial services for over 15 years and has previously held a consultancy role at LV=. He provides financial solutions across pensions and investments.

KPMG in the UK has named the firm’s financial services specialist, Bill Michael, as its new chair-elect and the successor to Simon Collins, whose term ends on 30 September. Michael was the successful candidate in the election, winning the majority vote of KPMG’s 615 partners. An auditor by background, has worked for the firm for nearly 30 years and is currently the global head of banking and capital markets, leading a network of over 17,000 professionals across audit, tax and advisory and the EMA financial services practice. He has extensive experience advising international clients including J.P. Morgan, Barclays and HSBC.

Paul Morton, the new tax director of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has taken over the helm of the organisation from 1 March and will be leading future attempts to reduce complexity in the UK’s tax system. He succeeds John Whiting who is retiring, after holding the position since the organisation was established in 2010.