RSM has appointed Andrew Manning as risk assurance partner, based in their Bristol office. He has previously been a partner at Deloitte and head of Crow Clark Whitehall’s internal audit and risk team. Manning has over 20 years’ experience working at a senior level in risk consulting, governance and internal audit.

Roger Merchant has joined UHY Hacker Young as partner, with more than 30 years’ audit experience internationally, having worked as a partner in both London and Warsaw. In his new role he will work across the charity, family business and construction sectors as well as providing internal audit, due diligence and corporate finance advice to his clients.

James Cowper Kreston, Thames Valley accountants, has appointed Margaret Savory to join their corporate tax team. She joins from BDO and has previous experience in advising entrepreneurial and fast-growing businesses on all aspects of their corporate tax affairs.

Val Dring has joined Price Bailey accountants as business development manager. She joins from the NatWest Commercial office, where she was instrumental in setting up the Innovation and Growth Unit for East Region, worked as a relationship manager and was later promoted to business development director. Dring has over 30 year’s business experience and in 2002 was awarded an MBE ‘for services to businesses’.

Nigel Webb has joined FTI Consulting as senior managing director of its forensic accounting and advisory services. He has previously been a partner at one of the Big Four firms as well as working for investment banks, brokers and securities firms.

CVR Global has opened an office in Southampton and has appointed Simon Lowes as partner. Lowes is an insolvency practitioner with more than 30 years of experience in the insolvency and business recovery sector. He joins Matthew Fox as CVR Global’s second partner based in Southampton.

Accountants and business advisers, HURST, have promoted three members of their team. Ian Dawson has become an associate partner and Ben Bradley a manager in the firm’s corporate finance team, while Joe Lockett has become an assistant manager in the payroll services division.

Mazars in the UK has promoted five partners and has transferred another from its Singapore office. The appointments include Amanda Barker, Stephen Brown, Louis Burns, Francois Monville, Vesko Petkov and James Smalley. Following these appointments, Mazars UK now has over 140 partners and 1700 staff.

The Virgin Group has appointed Amy Stirling to become its chief financial officer (CFO). Previously, she was CFO for The Prince’s Trust and TalkTalk and has held many roles in the technology, media and telecommunications sector. Stirling will be responsible for the overall financial and risk positions as well as accounting, tax, treasury and key portfolio matters. She replaces JP Moorhead who is joining the investment arm of Fidelity International Limited as their chief operating officer.

The Co-operative Bank has appointed Glyn Smith as a non-executive director and chair of its audit committee. He has been a non-executive director of the Coventry Building Society for six years and has over 35 years of experience in the financial services sector, including as a senior executive at Barclays. He takes over from Richard Coates on 10 October.

Darren Topp, former boss of BHS, has become chief executive of LK Bennett. He takes over from Robert Bensoussan and his task will be to boost sales, which dipped slightly to £94m last year. He was also be joined by Michael Hitchcock, with whom he worked with at BHS, who has been appointed as chief financial officer.

Senior market leaders have announced that Richard Howitt, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), has been appointed as the International Integrated Reporting Council’s  (IIRC) next chief executive officer. He takes over from Paul Druckman on 1 November 2016 and will step down as an MEP.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has appointed Chris Young for the newly created role of Scotland external relations and branch support officer for CIOT as well as the Association on Taxation Technicians (ATT). Young joins from 3x1 Group, one of Scotland’s largest independent public relations and public affairs consultancies, where he held the role of public affairs account manager. In his role he will help build the profile of CIOT among politicians, the media and wider public as well as strengthening the participation of the organisation’s 2,080 Scottish members through the CIOT/ATT’s five Scottish branches.