EY has appointed Martina Neary to head up its financial services business in the Midlands, replacing Amit Thaker, who will retain a leadership position in the Midlands and returns to his tax technology and transformation role. Neary is a CFO consulting partner at EY, advising businesses in the insurance, wealth, and asset management industries. She has over 20 years’ experience working with some of the UK’s largest financial institutions, including major UK and global insurance companies, and has significant experience delivering finance transformation projects and advising on mergers and acquisition. Within EY’s financial services practice, Ben Morphet has also recently been promoted to partner, and will lead EY’s financial services assurance practice in the Midlands.

Azets has appointed Chris Horne as deputy chief executive officer and he will support CEO Dawn Marriott on the development and expansion of the accountancy group across Europe and the UK.  Horne was managing partner for Azets in Scotland and Northern England and had previously led the Scottish firm Campbell Dallas through a period of rapid organic growth and the acquisition of six independent accountancy firms in Scotland.

Shaw Gibbs has appointed Phil Dickinson as tax partner as of 1 February. Dickinson is a tax specialist who has been involved in advising owner managed businesses on direct tax issues for over 10 years. He has a particular specialism in property, advising both professional landlords and property developers with significant property portfolios. His focus is on restructuring businesses so that they are both commercially and tax efficient as well as providing solutions for a clear business exit and succession strategy. Prior to this move, Dickinson spent six years at Charterhouse (Accountants).

Deloitte has appointed Amanda Tickel as its new head of tax policy, leading a team of 23 tax and trade experts. The team advises clients on UK and global tax policy issues across personal, employment, corporate and indirect taxes. She replaces partner Daniel Lyons who has retired from the firm after 24 years. Tickel has 25 years’ experience in indirect and international tax. She has spent the past two years leading the firm’s Brexit insights team, working with businesses to prepare for the UK’s departure from the EU. She will continue this role as the firm helps clients to implement the UK’s new immigration system, navigate future global trade policy and adapt to rule changes for importing and exporting goods.

MHA Henderson Loggie has hired Dawn MacDougall as tax director from EY where most recently she was head of tax in their Inverness office and focused on supporting owner managed businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the UK, with complex tax issues. She has over thirty years’ tax experience, qualifying with EY in 1991 before joining investment house Martin Currie, and then Scottish Water in managerial roles. She re-joined EY in 2008 after an eight-year stint at mid-tier accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael. Based in Edinburgh and Inverness, MacDougall will work across all of MHA Henderson Loggie’s offices in Scotland and will focus on furthering the tax team’s reputation as a centre of excellence for owner managed business taxation.

Grant Thornton UK LLP has announced a raft of 40 new appointments and promotions in Yorkshire and the North East as it invests in the future. Among the promotions to director is Duncan Morpeth from the corporate finance team. A second senior promotion in the advisory team has seen restructuring expert Richard Oddy promoted to director. Also promoted to director is transport expert Dan Mansfield in the public sector advisory team. Based in Sheffield and working nationally Eimear Considine has been promoted to director in the firm’s consulting team and leads the transformation and programme management office team, where she helps businesses manage transitional change. The majority of the new hires, at school leaver and graduate level, are in the firm’s tax and audit practices.

Mark Batten has been appointed as banking and capital markets leader for PwC in the UK. He will head up the firm’s B&CM practice which provides guidance on all aspects of banking strategy, risk and regulation, fintech, consumer credit, tax and deals. He will retain his role as global relationship partner for one of PwC’s global banking clients and has over 25 years of experience gained exclusively in financial services with the firm. He has extensive delivery experience across major change projects in banking and capital markets including risk and regulatory strategy, risk transformation, finance transformation and efficiency and cost effectiveness. He has also worked in Australia with PwC, is a qualified chartered accountant and member of the ICAEW, and has been a partner with PwC for 15 years.

Midlands-based Prime Accountants has promoted Paul Guise to the position of associate director after six years with the firm. Guise has a wealth of experience advising owner-managed businesses and he joined Prime in July 2015 as an accounts manager, becoming a senior audit and accounts manager in July 2017 before his latest promotion.

Engine B, a next generation AI-driven audit technology company, has appointed Franki Hackett as head of audit and ethics. Hackett brings a wealth of experience gained designing and implementing next-generation data technologies into audit and assurance, as well as an academic background in critical accounting, audit ethics and tax transparency. She joins Engine B from the UK National Audit Office, where she was head of financial audit analytics, managing the data analytics team for the financial audit side of the business.

HW Fisher has expanded its specialist team with the appointment of Martin Smith as a consultant who joins from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. He has over 30 years’ accountancy experience with 20 years spent in the pharma industry and 10 years in the chemicals industry. His professional experience includes roles as CFO and board member for AstraZeneca in Italy, during a time of multiple product launches and organisational re-alignment. In his most recent role at AstraZeneca he devised, developed and led a programme to identify cost saving opportunities across the organisation. He will be responsible for the team’s operation, focusing on ensuring large businesses maximise royalty revenue and reduce supplier costs.

Dechert LLP has named restructuring lawyer Adam Plainer as global co-chair of its financial restructuring group. He has experience advising debtors, creditors, and insolvency professionals in connection with complex cross-border workouts, restructurings, formal insolvencies and distressed M&A. He regularly acts for some of the leading global credit and private equity funds. Some of his most high-profile mandates include advising global financial services firm Lehman Brothers; advising KPMG as joint administrators in the special administration of global financial derivatives broker MF Global UK; and acting on the restructuring of UK retailer BHS.

Ross Trustees, the professional trustee and pensions services firm, has appointed Geoff McKenzie as senior trustee manager. He joins the firm from Clarks where he was the company’s director of global pensions. He has more than 20 years’ experience in senior in-house roles with Vodafone and Barclays. He has considerable experience across a broad range of areas including managing the merging and restructuring of pension schemes within benefits packages, outsourcing scheme administration, and developing and executing member communications programmes.

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