Saffrey Champness has elected James Sykes as its new chairman, taking over from David Macy who has been in the role since 2013. Sykes trained with the firm in 1987 and became a partner in 1997. He has previously sat on the firm’s management board, headed its private wealth practice group and been deputy chairman. He will continue to advise clients alongside his duties as chairman.

Trevor Birch has joined Duff & Phelps as managing director in the firms London office. He specialises in advising the sports sector, due to him being a former professional footballer, and is best known for his executive appointments at a number of football clubs. In 2002 he became chief executive of Chelsea where he led the £180m sale to Roman Abramovich in July 2003. He was then appointed chief executive of Leeds United FC and most recently, he was a partner and head of the professional sports group at BDO LLP during which he acted as administrator of Portsmouth FC. HE has also previously worked as a partner at Deloitte and EY.

KPMG Newcastle has appointed David Elliott as office senior partner, taking over from Mick Thompson who retires from the firm in spring. Elliott joined KPMG nine years ago as a partner to lead the firm’s tax practice in the region. Currently, he advises a wide variety of clients and leads KPMG’s regional Enterprise offering, which tailors the firm’s range of services across audit, tax and advisory, to the needs of private businesses. Elliott will continue to run the firm’s tax team in the north east and Thompson will continue to work with audit senior partner Nick Plumb.

Smith & Williamson has appointed Rupert Phelps as a partner in its family office services. He has 20 years’ experience in the financial and wealth management industry and joins the firm from Savills where he was director of its family office services.

Ian Smith has been elected as the new chair of Bishop Fleming, succeeding Jerry O’Sullivan who has finished his six year term. Smith is a corporate and business services partner at the Worcester office. In his new role, he will be working with Matthew Lee, the firm's managing partner, on the development of the partners and senior management team within the firm.

RCL Consultancy, chartered advisory arm of Embark Group, has added Mark Cooper, Greg Boomer and Neil Mitchell to its team. Cooper has joined as head of employee benefits consultancy from Brooks Macdonald. Broomer will be joining Cooper’s team with 25 years of experience in the pensions, health and wellbeing, and the flexible benefits industry. HE joins from Johnson Fleming where he was a senior new business consultant. Mitchell has joined as a consultant, providing services to clients in London, the south east, East Anglia and the Home Counties.

Law firm, Proskauer, has appointed Stephen Pevsner as tax partner in its London office. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, corporate reorganisations and new business formations. His clients include global corporations, investment banks, and private equity sponsors and investors.

MHA Carpenter Box has appointed Dan Hobbs as an associate in its tax services group. Hobbs trained in accountancy and later went on to specialise in tax, therefore is both a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. He will provide advice to clients in a wide range of businesses, with a particular focus on specialist VAT advice.

CIOT member, Carole Connor, has joined Alexander Sloan as a tax partner. She will advise clients on a broad range of commercial issues as well as personal and family tax matters. She specialises in HMRC tax investigations and corporate tax, and is also experienced in managing tax risk for the not-for-profit sector.

Alastair Kendrick has left MHA MacIntyre Hudson to run his own business. His new company is called AK employment tax services and he will provide consultancy services on all aspects of employment taxes including status, IR35 and company car taxation. Kendrick joined MHA MacIntyre Hudson in August 2011 and was a director dealing with employment tax. Prior to this he was partner at Mazars. He has also worked for KPMG and EY in the past and is a former inspector of taxes at HMRC.