BDO is expanding its financial services team with the appointment of Steffan Adfeldt as a tax director. He joins from Barclays, where he oversaw all tax aspects of treasury matters at group level. Prior to this Adfeldt worked within Barclays Investment Banking division (formerly Barclays Capital),  and also previously as a tax lawyer at Allen and Overy and Baker and McKenzie.

PwC Legal has appointed Neal Shepherd as a partner to spearhead its regional growth, particularly in the North of England.  He joins from Addleshaw Goddard,  and will be based in the firm's Manchester office, focusing on mid-market M&A.  Other senior hires by include partner Mark Crofskey, who has joined from McDermott Will & Emery to lead the M&A team in London, while former Field Fisher Waterhouse partner Stewart Room has been appointed to lead PwC Legal's cyber security practice.

KPMG has appointed Warren Mead as its head of challenger banking and alternative finance, a new role which the firm says reflects the need to have a specialist practice group to address this rapidly growing area of the market. Mead has extensive financial services experience, including 15 years in KPMG’s transactions services.

Paul Miles has been named as the new CFO at payday lender Wonga, replacing Tim Weller who has moved up to the role of acting CEO while a permanent replacement is found. Miles is currently CFO at debt management company Capquest and will start his new job before the end of the year. He was previously group financial controller at insurer RSA.

Specialist tax firm Tax Advisory Partnership (TAP) has made three new appointments in its corporate tax advisory business. Helen Mallalieu joins from a Big Four firm to work alongside Leeds office partner Russ Cahill, together with consultant Gillian Abramson, previously with PwC, who will provide advice on innovation reliefs, and patent lawyer Rob Spavin who has over 15 years’ experience of working with technology clients.

EY has appointed Victoria Venning as a partner in the North West as the firm continues to expand its regional assurance practice. She joins from Deloitte in the Midlands, where she worked in the firm’s audit practice and was head of talent for its Nottingham office, and has over 15 years of audit experience.

Mazars has appointed seven new UK partners, bringing the total number of partners to 128.  The new partners in financial services advisory are Romy Comiter, who has led the firm’s insurance consultancy team since she joined the firm in 2011, and Darius Medora, who has 15 years of experience working in the insurance sector and previously worked for the Friends Life Group. Mike Clarkson is made partner in public service advisory, having joined the firm in February following the acquisition of Deloitte’s public sector internal audit business.  

Rob Burton, a corporate finance specialist who joined Mazars in 2005 is made partner, corporate finance.  Ali Kazimi becomes a partner in financial services tax, joining from Deloitte where he was managing director and head of international tax for their Middle East and North Africa business. Melanie Orriss joins the firm as a tax partner after 11 years at Baker Tilly, having also worked at PwC, BDO and the Beckett group. Paul Rouse, who joined Mazars in 2006 to help build the National Creditor Services (NCS) team is also made partner in NCS which is now the market leader in bankruptcy services.

Oxford firm Shaw Gibbs has made two appointments. Chartered financial planner Tim Davison joins the financial services team from Fortitude Financial Planning. Before qualifying as an IFA in 2001, he handled technical business development for large investment groups such as Scottish Widows.  Adrian Stevens joins as personal tax consultant from Brooks Mayfield in Nottingham. An ATT fellow, he began his career with HMRC and has worked for Grant Thornton, Haines Watts and Wilkins Kennedy.