Mike Orton has joined Mercer & Hole as a corporate finance director. He joins from Grant Thornton, having worked in transaction advisory services for the past six years and, before that, as an audit manager since 2002. He specialises in due diligence, M&A, financial planning, and analysis and reporting.

Blick Rothenberg has appointed James Dolan and Daphne Hemingway as partners in the corporate tax team. Dolan joins as a corporate tax partner from EY where he was part of the international tax team. He specialises in helping US groups establish UK and European operations including advice on tax efficient holding and financing platforms, ownership and commercialisation of intellectual property and mergers and acquisitions. Hemingway is joing the firm as a VAT partner. She has 20 years VAT experience in the Big Four and in the accounting industry, specialising in property, construction, charities and not for profit, banking, finance, technology, VAT litigation and disputes resolutions with HMRC.

Wilkins Kennedy has made three partner promotions at it London and Heathrow offices. Jemima Jones and David Jenkins have been promoted to tax partner and Paul Creasey to audit partner. Jones is one of the youngest women in the firm to become a partner, she joined in 2005 as a trainee, passed her accountancy exams in 2008 and tax exams the following year, before being appointed as tax director in 2015. Creasey joined the firm in 2015 from an international accountancy practice, he has become one of the firm’s specialists in financial reporting regulations and has developed a client portfolio that includes software and technology companies as well as charities and education establishments. Jenkins has more than 20 years’ experience providing tax advice to clients in areas such as financial due diligence and lead advisory work. David joined the firm in April 2015 as tax director, following a number of years at several international accountancy firms.

Rachel Khiara has joined as a partner in RSM’s legal practice. She will lead the RSM corporate legal team, advising on aspects of governance, financial organisation and acquisition for clients in the mid-market and professional practices sector. Formerly she was a partner at Addleshaw Goddard and Counsel with Allen & Overy before founding boutique partnership and regulatory firm, Khiara Law LLP.

Mal Shah has joined Haslers’ business services group as partner. He joins the firm from one of the UK’s top 20 practices, where he worked with a wide range of privately owned businesses, many of whom were owner managed. His clientele ranges from successful start-ups right the way up to large SME businesses with turnovers exceeding £50 million.

French Duncan has promoted Stephen Thom to tax partner. He joined French Duncan in 2015 as head of corporate tax for the business’s Glasgow office and was quickly promoted to take on the position for the whole firm. He has also previously worked for Grant Thornton following a period in London with BDO and Lloyds Banking Group where he specialised in providing tax advisory services.

Brown Shipley has announced the formal integration of seven new advisers and 12 support staff, into its Manchester office. This follows the acquisition of The Roberts Partnership, a financial planning and wealth management company, in October 2016.

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, who are responsible for the governance and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), have appointed Dr Jianqiao Lu as a board member. Dr Lu will join from the Chinese Ministry of Finance, where he is director of the Accounting Regulatory Department and in charge of Chinese accounting standard-setting. He has also been head of China’s governmental accounting standards reform working group and led projects to develop accounting standards for not-for-profit organisations.

Trafalgar House, the pensions administration specialist, has appointed Ian Burke as senior business analyst and Clare Smith as developer. Burker joins from the Pension Protection fund where he was business process lead. He has also held roles at Atkins, Mercer and Hewitt Associates. Smith joins from premier Pensions where she was a systems analyst. She has also worked at Hymans Robertson, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Aon Hewitt.

NOW: Pensions has appointed John Rowland as non-executive director to its commercial board, replacing Bo Foged. Rowland started his career in the UK Civil Service before moving to Australia to join National Mutual Fund Management. He then spent five years in France and the UK as Chief Information Officer at AXA Investment Managers, before moving to Invesco, where he held a range of positions in the US and the UK.

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting business has hired Sarfaraz Ahmed as Market Manager, Finance and Risk, for its growing Asia Pacific (APAC) business. Ahmed joins from Standard Chartered Bank where he contributed to the bank’s various mandates for the past ten years, including those in risk analytics, policies, processes and systems. He will be based in the Singapore office.

Bibby Financial Services has appointed Mike Fairey as non-executive director. He has previously held a wide variety of executive and non-executive roles throughout the financial services sector, including ten years as deputy group chief executive of Lloyds TSB Group Plc. He is currently chair of Hastings Group Holdings plc and non-executive director at MGM Advantage and Energy Savings Trust.

PTL, an independent trustee and governance services provider, has announced a new Board following their Management Buy Out (MBO) which concluded late in April. Four directors will join the board, replacing the previous owner directors who retired following the MBO. Kim Nash, Colin Richardson and Alison Bostock will join as equity directors, alongside Richard Butcher, Steve Carrodus, David Hosford and David Archer. Additionally, Ruston Smith, until recently group pensions and insurable risk director at Tesco, CEO of Tesco Pension Investment and a former chairman of the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association, will join the Board as non-executive chairman.