Helen Guy and Patrick Curry have joined RSM’s north west practice as tax directors. Guy joins RSM from KPMG where she was the national lead for creative sector tax reliefs. She specialises in innovation tax reliefs, including R&D tax relief, patent box and creative sector tax reliefs. Curry also joins from KPMG and has over 15 years’ experience in corporate tax working with large businesses. He has supported a range of businesses from start-up technology companies to private equity backed and listed groups, through acquisitions, disposals, restructuring and global expansion. He also brings significant sector experience across manufacturing, retail, infrastructure and technology.  

Paul Finnegan has joined Lubbock Fine as chief operating officer. Finnegan brings over 20 years of experience in senior management roles within accountancy firms. He held a variety of positions at KPMG over a seven-year period, including UK head of business development and assistant to the chief operating officer in their corporate recovery practice. He joins Lubbock Fine from Blick Rothenberg, where he started as practice director 13 years ago, becoming an equity partner five years later and then chief operating officer.

Mercer & Hole has appointed Andy Turner as audit and business advisory partner. Turner was previously at KPMG as an associate partner for 29 years and has worked in Manchester, Moscow, New York and London. He will be advising clients from the firm’s London office.

Les Burnett, the former managing partner of PKF Francis Clark, has been appointed Chair of PKF in the UK and Ireland. He takes over from Carmine Papa, managing partner of PKF Littlejohn, who has served as chair for the past two years. Burnett joined the Torquay office of Francis Clark in 1981, becoming a partner in 1983. He became the firm’s managing partner in 1999 and oversaw the firm’s growth, before it joined the PKF International network in 2016. PKF UK and Ireland comprises PKF BBA, PKF Cooper Parry, PKF FPM, PKF Francis Clark, Johnston Carmichael, PKF KLSA, PKF Littlejohn and PKF O’Connor, Leddy & Holmes. 

Beevers and Struthers has promoted Caroline Monk and Maria Hallows to executive partner. They take over from managing partner Phil Roberts and senior partner Chris Porritt, who between them have amassed a total of 99 years with the practice. Monk Caroline joined the firm in 2003 and leads the private sector audit team with additional responsibility for its international groups and FCA regulated clients. Hallows, who joined in 1995, heads the firm’s not for profit sector.

Sophie Austin has joined MHA Monahans as its first HR partner. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Austin spent 12 years leading HR at logistics firm Wincanton before moving into consultancy to work with SMEs to improve their business growth and transformation through HR.

Alun Milford is to join Kingsley Napley’s criminal litigation team as partner. He currently holds the post of General Counsel at the Serious Fraud Office.  Milford has been a prosecutor for the government for 26 years, following a period in private practice. Prior to his current position his roles have included the head of proceeds of crime unit and the head of organised crime division at the Crown Prosecution Service, lawyer in the Attorney General’s Office and head of asset forfeiture division in the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office. At Kingsley Napley he will join the globally recognised defence team to deal with a range of work, in particular white collar crime, international and multi-jurisdictional investigations, sanctions, compliance and enforcement matters. 

Report by Amy Austin