Mercer & Hole has promoted Alison Palmer to director in the private client tax services team. Palmer is an experienced tax professional and a member of CIOT. Based at Mercer & Hole’s London office, she advises clients on all taxation aspects of their financial affairs, including capital gains tax and inheritance tax planning and the use of trusts.  In particular, she has an interest in residence issues and the taxation of foreign domiciliaries.

South Yorkshire-based Gibson Booth has appointed Rob Howard as tax director. He joined the firm in 2008 having previously worked for both national and leading independent firms, and has over 16 years’ experience dealing with a wide range of tax issues affecting both businesses and individuals. 

RGL Forensics has strengthened its global leadership team with the promotion of four global employees to partner level. They include two new UK partners: Joe Aldous and Ben Hobby. Aldous has spent 15 years with RGL, primarily specialising in advising on business interruption loss cases. Prior to joining firm, he was with Horwath Clark Whitehill (now Crowe Clark Whitehill). Hobby joined RGL London in 2004 to focus on forensic accounting having worked in internal audit and investigative roles in companies such as Grampian Country Food Group and Pace Microelectronics, and has handled investigations for insurers and lawyers worldwide. He is RGL’s representative at the Cyber Risk Insurance Forum.

Mike Dawes, a partner at Weybridge-based accountants TWP has taken on a new position as a specialist tax consultant for the firm. The move into a consultancy role is designed to support his focus on estate planning work. Dawes has been with the firm for nearly 28 years and has helped head up the firm’s private client tax department for more than two decades. 

Thames Valley accountants James Cowper Kreston has announced 10 promotions, including two new partners. Private client director Stephen Barratt is promoted to partner, as is business tax director Alex Nicholson. Newly promoted to director are: Meera Rajah in VAT, plus Fiona Hawkins, Darren O'Connor, James Pitt and Jon Baillie, who all work in audit and assurance. Richard Gillespie, Paul Griffiths and Luke Harris who work in audit and assurance, are promoted to manager.

Larking Gowen has named senior manager, Andrew Burwood, as a partner specialising in GP practices. Burwood, who joined the firm in 2015, has been working with GP practices for over 17 years. 

RSM has promoted 19 new partners around the UK effective from 1 April 2016. There include seven partner appointments in the audit team: Philip Briggs in London, Gareth Jones in Leicester, Zoë Rudling in Gatwick, Claire Monaghan in Edinburgh, Stuart Clowser in Guildford, Sarah Joannidi in Bristol and Kerry Norman in Chelmsford. Tina Mullington, James Morris and Andrew Gordon become tax partners, while John Forth is appointed as a VAT partner. 

Turner Contemporary has appointed Anthony Crocker as head of finance. He trained in public practice with chartered accountants Kreston Reeves, where he spent 10 years and qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) in December 2005. Since 2008 he has undertaken senior finance roles within two charities – KCA and Demelza. At KCA he was assistant director of finance and ICT and at Demelza he held the role of director of finance and corporate services.

NetApp has appointed Ron Pasek as executive vice president, chief financial officer (CFO). Most recently, Pasek served as CFO of Altera Corporation, and prior to that he held several senior finance roles at Sun Microsystems during a 20-year career with the technology company. 

Simon Preston has joined global workforce solutions provider Fircroft as director of finance. Preston was previously head of group finance at health care provider Virgin Care and prior to that, manager, assurance services at EY.

Guillermo Babatz has been appointed as a trustee of the IFRS Foundation for a three-year term. He is a managing partner at Atik Capital, a Mexican advisory firm, and was formerly executive chairman of Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), the Mexican banking and securities commission. Prior to joining CNBV, he was the CEO of Mexico’s Mortgage Bank and Guarantor, Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF), and has also held various roles within the Ministry of Finance in Mexico. 

Exiger, the global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance firm, has appointed Robert Wilson as a director in the firm’s London office focusing on forensic accounting. He joins from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and brings 23 years’ experience in investigating complex fraud and financial investigations across multiple jurisdictions, including five years with the Serious Fraud Office and a career spanning a number of international professional services firms. Wilson joined the FRC from GlaxoSmithKline, and worked previously in IBM’s fraud investigation and data analytics team. From 2009 to 2012 he was a senior manager in PwC’s forensic services, having qualified with Deloitte.