Menzies LLP has strengthened its leadership team across its audit, assurance and deal advisory service lines to expand specialist sector expertise nationally. The six partner appointments are Andrew Collier, Grant Lee, George Shillam, Elizabeth Hatchman, David Ellis and Dean Curtis. Lee is promoted after joining the firm in 2022 as technical director, and becomes audit partner for real estate, private equity portfolio companies and tech firms. Audit and risk partners, Shillam and Hatchman, and corporate finance partner Curtis are promoted and all came across to Menzies as part of the recent Beever & Struthers’ acquisition. The external hires are Lee, who joins from Gerald Edelman, where he was an assurance partner specialising in the property sector, having originally been at PwC as a partner until 2020. Ellis joins from Azets where he was a corporate finance partner, and brings extensive M&A experience advising business owners on acquisitions, sales and strategic transactions.

Azets has appointed Ben Sheldon as office managing partner of its 130-strong Birmingham office. The firm has also hired Aulfat Bi as a partner in the national capital allowances team. Sheldon joined Azets in 2019 and specialises in audit for private businesses. He has been instrumental in the growth of the audit team, which has expanded from 12 to more than 80 people in six years across commercial and public sector audit. He is also a member of the ICAEW technical and practical auditing committee. Bi brings over 20 years’ experience specialising in capital allowances and land remediation relief. Previously she was head of capital allowances at Innovation 4 Business, and originally trained at Deloitte where she was spent over 18 years and was an associate director.

RSM UK has appointed Chris Robson as employment tax partner and national Fair Pay lead. As a chartered accountant and tax adviser, Robson brings over two decades of experience advising employers on complex pay, equality and compliance issues. He specialises in coordinating employment tax with employment law, with particular expertise in national minimum wage compliance, holiday pay advice, gender pay gap reporting and equal pay. He joins from Deloitte where he was a director, employment taxes, specialising in pay governance.

Cooper Parry has named three audit partners with the promotion of Holly Green and David Fotheringham to partner, and the external appointment of Liz Ross-Jones joins as audit partner based in Yorkshire and the northeast region. Green has been with the firm for three years and has been instrumental in growing the big business audit share, winning complex group audit clients. Fotheringham specialises in tech and high growth business audit. Ross-Jones brings 20 years of experience, having worked with listed companies, privately owned and equity-backed firms across diverse sectors. Previuosly she was a director at PwC.

PKF Channel Islands has appointed David Carney as partner to lead its newly established risk advisory service, which provides services including audit support, controls assurance, internal audit and technology assurance. Carney brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in risk advisory across the UK and Channel Islands, most recently as director of risk assurance and data analytics at Grant Thornton CI, and also has Big Four experience from 13 years at PwC in risk assurance roles. He is also chairman of the Channel Islands Information Security Forum.

Browne Jacobson has appointed Adam Berry and Adam Culy as partners in the financial & professional risks team in London. Berry has over 15 years’ experience of working on financial services investigations – working in private practice, as well as in the enforcement division of what is now the FCA and, most recently, in-house at Barclays. Culy brings formidable credentials from a 13-year stint as General Counsel of BDO LLP, where he built a strong in-house legal team, performed the role of PI and captive director, and managed some of BDO’s most complex litigation and regulatory matters. Since June 2020, he has been a litigation partner at Stephenson Harwood, focusing on accountancy litigation, professional regulatory investigations and professional negligence defence. Pictured: Adam Berry, Jonathan Newbold, partner and head of FS, and Adam Culy

Kingsley Napley has appointed Tristan Cox-Chung as a partner in the restructuring & insolvency team. He joins from Clyde & Co where he spent the last eight years, latterly as a legal director. Cox-Chung specialises in both contentious and non-contentious insolvency situations, often dealing with suspected fraud, asset recovery, dispute fraud  and intricate cross-border disputes, as well as advising on complex restructurings and transactions. He has acted for insolvency practitioners (UK and offshore), lenders, investors, private equity firms, pension schemes, trustees, directors and corporate clients to navigate complex financial and legal challenges.

Andersen LLP has appointed Dhruv Tanna as director in its global mobility practice. He brings over 11 years of global mobility experience, including a decade at Deloitte, with particular expertise in advising multinational clients on international social security and the EU Posted Workers Directive, as well as leading on the implementation and delivery of global business travel and remote work compliance technology solutions. Most recently he was a director at Limes International, a cross-border payroll business, after having spent a decade at Deloitte, latterly as an associate director.

Alvarez & Marsal has appointed Jamie Peel as a senior director in the corporate finance practice to lead the newly launched public company advisory group, based in Manchester. In his new role, Peel will focus on establishing the new advisory capability globally, with further senior hires planned. He joins from PwC where he was a director in the M&A team. Prior to this, he was an investment banking director at Zeus Capital, where he worked for 12 years.

UHY Hacker Young has appointed Nick Varley as senior manager in the UHY Sheffield office. He brings 45 years of experience in the south Yorkshire accountancy market, specialising in supporting owner-managed businesses, entrepreneurs and organisations across a wide range of sectors. He joins from Brearley & Co Accountants where he was a senior manager.  

Azets has expanded trainee numbers by 15% on last year, hiring 384 graduates and school leavers across its UK business. Trainees will be accelerated into advisory roles alongside the firm’s ongoing investment in AI to help automate some of the work traditionally done by graduates and entry-level staff, rather than cutting new starter opportunities. 

Hall Morrice has promoted Alex Duncan to senior tax manager and Esme Bell to tax manager in the Aberdeen and Elgin offices. Duncan has 17 years of experience covering personal and corporate tax issues, while Bell has over three decades of tax experience and heads up the firm’s MTD team. She started her tax career as a revenue officer in the Inland Revenue.

PKF Smith Cooper has expanded its central operations team with four appointments. Tara Adams rejoins the firm as digital transformation project lead, while new hires Francesca McKernan named as business development coordinator, Zoe Cooper as people manager and Grace Downing as assistant digital marketing manager. Adams was previously a senior management accountant at Littlefish, and prior to this spent nine years in the business services team PKF Smith Cooper, having joined as an AAT trainee. In her new role Adams will act as a bridge between IT and the various service lines to roll out IT integration and systems. McKernan will support business development initiatives across the gorup, and joins from SDL Surveying where she was partnership and events manager. Cooper is a CIPD Level 5 qualified HR professional, and joins from Pentaxia where she was HR manager. Downing brings PR and digital strategy experience, previously as an account manager at advertising agency Cogent.

The Insolvency Service appointed Duncan Beach as chief executive, replacing current interim chief executive Alec Pybus, who took on the role in May following the departure of Dean Beale. Beach will take up the role on 5 January and brings more than 20 years of experience in financial services, financial crime prevention, and driving change and innovation in large, complex organisations. His first priority will be to finalise the new strategy for the Insolvency Service, due for launch in April 2026. He is currently managing director, global head of risk & compliance transformation at banking giant HSBC, where he has held a number of senior leadership roles over the past nine years. Pybus will return to his role as chief operating officer at the government agency.