Crowe has appointed Dan Town to partner in the audit practice. He has been promoted from audit director in the Birmingham office and has more than 22 years’ experience providing audit, risk and accountancy support to businesses of all sizes from owner-managed businesses, large corporates, international groups and AIM listed entities. His area of focus at Crowe is providing audit and advisory services to the corporate market, both public and privately owned. Town joined the firm in 2021 from Hazlewoods.

Azets has appointed Leigh Davenport as a tax partner based in Leeds where he will support a range of SME clients with complex tax issues, reliefs and tax planning. He joins from KPMG where he was a tax senior manager for over 15 years, and originally trained as a chartered accountant at PwC.

Scrutton Bland has promoted Leisyen Cox to associate partner in the risk and assurance team. She has been part of the internal audit team for 15 years. Cox is a highly qualified and experienced auditor, specialising in providing audit services to clients in the education, housing and charity sectors. She is also knowledgeable in risk management strategies relating to IT, cyber and fraud.

MHA has hired Christine Courtman as a manager in its growing agriculture team. Having worked in the agriculture sector for over 10 years, Courtman brings solid knowledge and experience to the team, particularly around accounts preparation and analysis for farmers in partnerships, limited companies, sole traders and LLPs, as well as those wanting to diversify. Previously she was at Land Family Business where she was a specialist agricultural accounts manager for a number of years.

BDO Group in Jersey has promoted Almeri Szulc to group finance director. Originally from South Africa, Szulc has been at BDO in Jersey for the past seven years and will provide financial and strategic insight to client facing practice leads to allow informed decision making for financial success. The firm has also made promotions across various departments in the business. Lewie Foster has been promoted to assistant manager in the tax team and Tamarah Miller has been promoted to assistant manager in the risk advisory services team. In the audit and assurance team, Elliott Hughes, Helen Stansfield, Reshma Nazroo and Rhys Powell have been promoted to manager, and Nadia Grey, Philips Obosi and Tapiwa Mundawarara to assistant manager. Stephanie Glass in the transformation and change team has also been promoted to manager.

Hall Morrice has recruited a record number of trainees from Robert Gordon University (RGU). This year’s cohort is the largest ever at the Aberdeen based firm. Three third-year RGU students Craig Melville, Aaron Small and James Castrence have joined the graduate trainee programme, while six CA students also join the firm – Sarah Hamilton, Faye Gill and Matthew Law, along with former placement students, Chloe Milton, Mark Mitchell and Ellie Shand. The recruitment drive is part of an ongoing investment in the Hall Morrice team which has seen a number of new positions, recruits and promotions for staff at all stages of their accountancy career recently.

Carpenter Box has hired two trainees, Sarah Miller and Jack Gamon, who have both made a change of career direction to join the Sussex firm. Miller is a tax trainee working towards the Association of Taxation Technicians qualification. She gained a degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare in 2017 and worked at Plumpton College as a lecturer in animal care before becoming a teaching assistant at a junior school. Audit trainee Gamon took a year out after A levels and worked at a Crawley estate agency. However, he’d always had a passion for finance and business and was recommended to contact Carpenter Box by a relative who had been a client of the firm for more than 20 years.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has appointed Andrea Tweedie as head of stewardship after acting as the interim head of stewardship. In this role, Tweedie will lead on stewardship policy development and the assessment of the UK Stewardship Code applicants, ensuring that the FRC continues to promote best practices in stewardship across the investment chain.