Saffery has promoted six directors to partner, with effect from 1 April. The new partners are David Bussey, Steven Coelho, Anna Hicks, Luke Hanratty, Andrew Smith and Helen Wilkie. Based in the Harrogate office, Bussey is a chartered accountant and trust & estates practitioner, advising families and owner-managed businesses across Yorkshire and the North East. London based Coelho is a private client tax specialist, advising high and ultra-high net worth clients on their UK tax affairs, estate and succession planning. Based in High Wycombe, Hanratty advises a portfolio of clients, including UK subsidiaries of large US chains, landed estates and international pharmaceutical groups. London based Hicks leads on the firm’s audit and financial reporting technical activity, while Smith provides tax advice to the owners of private companies and shareholders. Wilkie is a not-for-profit audit specialist with extensive experience from start-up charities to household names. She is also as an independent audit committee member at charity Blue Cross.

RSM UK has named Sheetal Sanghvi as office managing partner in Leicester following her appointment as office managing partner in Nottingham last April. She will succeed Kevin Harris who has held the role for six years and remains a key partner within the East Midlands leadership team. The new expanded role will enable greater consistency across the region with plans to integrate the 200-strong Nottingham and Leicester offices. Sanghvi is an RSM ‘lifer’ and has been with the firm for over 18 years after joining as an audit assistant in 2005 and progressing through the ranks to become partner. She is head of innovation reliefs in the Central region and holds extensive experience in research and development and patent box claims. Sheetal is also EmbRACE Network lead in the central region – an RSM initiative to champion race equality.

BDO has continued to invest in its people after hiring Claire Collins, Carl Jebbitt and Evan Routenberg as partners. Collins joins the quality and risk management team in London and has significant experience in audit quality and regulation. Most recently, she was a partner at EY where she trained and spent nearly two decades. Jebbitt takes on a regional role and will head up the pension audit team in the South East based in Guildford. A specialist in defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid pension schemes, he joins from Deloitte where he was an audit director and responsible individual (RI). Routenberg joins the digital risk advisory services team (DRAS), having almost 20 years’ experience in professional services. Based in London, he will lead the digital third party assurance (TPA) practice. Previously he was a director at PwC.

Mazars has appointed Jeremy Brown as financial services transfer pricing partner in London. In this newly created role, he will be focused on advising financial services clients across insurance, banking and asset management on their global transfer pricing obligations. He joins the firm from Deloitte where he was a financial services transfer pricing director, working with financial services clients on all aspects of transfer pricing including planning, documentation, audit of tax, and engagement with tax authorities.

Gerald Edelman has announced a strategic leadership transition as Richard Kleiner steps down as CEO to take up a new role as chairman and a member of the executive committee. He will be replaced as CEO by Carl Lundberg, a long-standing member of the firm’s leadership team. ‘The transition reflects our commitment to continuous improvement and ensuring we have the right leadership in place to capitalise on exciting opportunities ahead,’ said Kleiner. Lundberg joined Gerald Edelman as a trainee in 2010 and after a short stint at Deloitte, he returned to the firm to set up the corporate finance team and became a partner in 2017. Partners Hemen Doshi and Joanna Loizidou have also joined a newly set up operational management board.

Robb Ferguson has hired John Cairns as tax director, based in the Glasgow office. A long-time member of ICAS and a chartered tax adviser, he has specialised through the greater part of his career in corporate and personal tax planning and strategy. In his new role he will build on the firm’s proactive advisory tax services targeted at a client base of larger SMEs. Previously he was a tax partner at French Duncan and also at BDO, both in Glasgow.  

Armstrong Watson is continuing to develop its services for healthcare professionals with the appointment of Benjamin Walsh as a specialist healthcare financial planning consultant. He has joined the firm after four years with Cavendish Medical and has extensive knowledge of the NHS Pension Scheme. He will work with medical clients, supporting them through the ever-changing pensions, tax, and economic landscape.

Kilsby Williams has strengthened its business services and tax teams at the Newport-based firm with the appointment of audit and assurance specialist, Ken Vargis, as a manager in the business services team. He will be applying his significant auditing experience to support the firm’s varied client portfolio. He joins from Azets where he was an assistant audit manager. Hannah Griffiths, a Swansea University accounting and finance graduate, joins the business services team as business services assistant and will work towards her ACA qualification. Cardiff University graduate Luis McCarthy has been appointed as a trainee in the tax team.

Evelyn Partners has appointed Sally Boyle as an independent non-executive director to replace Elizabeth Chambers who is leaving the board after nine years. Boyle is an experienced non-executive director, who currently serves on the boards of UK listed construction group Galliford Try plc, where she chairs the remuneration committee, and Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Between 2017 and 2023, she was also a member of the board of the Royal Air Force, where she chaired the people and diversity committee. Boyle began her career as a solicitor at Simmons and Simmons, spending several years in private practice as an employment law specialist before joining Goldman Sachs International. She became a partner in 2010 and was international head of human capital management until she retired in December 2021.

ICAEW’s Outstanding Achievement Award

Eddie Ouko, the former auditor-general of Kenya, has been awarded ICAEW’s Outstanding Achievement Award for 2024. Ouko qualified as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant in 1982 and was presented with the award at the Institute’s annual dinner, in recognition of his exceptional record of public service as auditor-general and his bravery and dedication in combating corruption in Kenya. He served as the country’s first auditor general from 2011 to 2019, following a new constitution which widened the mandate of the Office of the Auditor General in the country to cover national government as well as 47 devolved county governments. Ouko said: ‘I served the country at a time when the country was politically polarised, and the leadership controlled both the executive and the legislature to whom I was responsible. The expected protection by parliament was thus compromised except for the minority lawmakers. Adverse audit revelations were not welcomed, nor the recommendations respected.’