BDO has hired two partners, Claire Frangou and Zsolt Szelecki to expand its advisory offerings. Frangou joins as an M&A partner in the firm’s north corporate finance team, based in Manchester. She has over 25 years’ experience as a corporate financier and will work closely with owner-managed and private equity-backed businesses to support their continued growth and development. Previously she was a director, corporate finance at KPMG. Szelecki joins as partner and head of people advisory service in the digital, risk & advisory service (DRAS) team, and will support businesses with culture and organisational transformation projects. He joins BDO from a non-executive director position and was previously senior client partner at Korn Ferry.   

UHY Hacker Young has expanded its tax practice with the appointment of corporate tax partner, Anthony Davies. He joins from south east regional accountancy firm Carpenter Box, where he oversaw its international tax team. Earlier in his career, he worked at EY, Grant Thornton and RSM. Through his 20-year career Davies has developed a specialism in corporate real estate, advising a range of property sector businesses on tax issues affecting activities from investment to development and construction. In his new role, he will be focusing particularly on international tax and real estate work, including UK corporate tax for multinational clients through the UHY International network.

Mazars has appointed Elina Rytseva as an audit quality partner, an experienced auditor and a former partner and head of audit quality at PwC. She previously worked as an audit quality review inspector at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and as audit quality director at BDO. At Mazars, she will be responsible for managing the firm’s relationship with audit regulators, ensuring effective and constructive cooperation, and will support engagement partners and audit teams during inspections.

PM+M has announced that the firm’s managing partner of eight years, Jane Parry, will be retiring in April 2024. Parry will be stepping down on 30 September and will be replaced by Helen Clayton, a partner in the audit, accounting and advisory team. Clayton joined the firm in 2015 and over the past eight years has led the opening of the Bury office and ongoing expansion plans. She has worked closely with Parry on team recruitment, retention and progression matters, with both transforming the talent development programme at the firm. Parry has been managing partner since 2015 and will remain as a tax partner until she fully retires at the end of April to ensure a smooth transition period.

PKF Francis Clark has strengthened its tax team with the appointment of corporate tax director Jamie Preston. Based in Exeter, he brings over 25 years’ experience in corporate taxes gained during his career with EY and, more recently, Grant Thornton. He advises businesses across a range of sectors, including large national and international groups, on both domestic and international financial reporting and tax compliance obligations, as well as dealing with corporate group expansion planning and reorganisation projects.

Spencer Gardner Dickins (SGD) has appointed Martin Chapman and Dan Field as tax directors. Previously Chapman was a senior tax manager at Walgreens Boots Alliance and spent 10 years at Deloitte. He is a business tax specialist with experience of transaction tax matters, business tax planning and international tax advisory. Field returns to the firm after two years, having previously been with SGD as a senior manager. He has 15 years’ experience in tax advisory, most recently as a senior tax manager at LDP Lucknams, and originally trained with KPMG. Kaitlin Wolfe and Scott Tandy have joined the apprenticeship programme. Monika Coleman has started as personal tax senior to support with the upcoming tax return season.

Dow Schofield Watts (DSW) has expanded its presence in the Midlands with the launch of a new corporate finance team. The three-strong team is led by Harry Walker and includes Fahim Kassam and Daniel Chouciño, who have all joined from FRP Corporate Finance. They will initially be based in Leicester and Nottingham, with plans to expand into the West Midlands. Each of the new team members has over 10 years’ experience in corporate finance. Walker worked with Grant Thornton in Bristol before joining FRP in 2018 to launch its corporate finance team in the East Midlands. Chouciño spent the early part of his career working on cross-border mergers and acquisitions for an international corporate finance network, while Kassam started his career in investment banking with Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Alantra. Both joined FRP in 2019.

Baker Tilly Mooney Moore has promoted Ashleigh Mooney, Emma George and Ciaran Hughes, trainees in the audit and assurance team to assistant manager level. Mooney and George joined the practice’s graduate training programme in 2019, working to deliver audit and accounting services while completing their qualifications with Chartered Accountants Ireland. Having worked in the accounting department of a Belfast school, Hughes joined the firm in 2018. Already qualified with Accounting Technicians Ireland, he went on to achieve accreditation by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Kreston Reeves has appointed Susan Chadwick as HR director. She has over 20 years’ experience working at a senior level within HR in the accountancy profession, initially at Deloitte and more recently at Rawlinson & Hunter LLP. Chadwick has a track record of driving organisational growth through identifying and implementing innovative HR strategies and processes and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and the Institute of Paralegals.

Cowgills has taken on 11 apprentices as part of their annual graduate scheme, split across the firm’s Greater Manchester and Liverpool offices. Working across the audit and tax practices, the apprentices will gain a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of an advisory career. As part of their training, the graduates will join the Cowgills Academy, launched in 2022, which allows trainees to learn all aspects of accounting, and to rotate around the business, working with clients across all sectors, and allowing them to choose the service area most suited to their skills.

Quantuma, the London headquartered advisory firm, has hired deal advisory and turnaround expert Nigel Smith as a managing director to establish the firm’s deal advisory and turnaround practice in the Middle East as client demand surges. Smith returns to the Middle East following an eight-year tenure at KPMG East Africa, where he was head of strategy and deal advisory. He will be based out of Dubai.

Chartered surveyors DM Hall has strengthened its top team with the appointment of Andrew Healy as financial director based in the Edinburgh office. Healy, who held the financial reins at the Scottish Rugby Union for 10 years, joins the firm from the Law Society of Scotland, taking over from Alan Patrick, who has been in the role for 20 years. An accountancy graduate from Glasgow University, his first appointment was with Big Four firm EY. He has held positions in a variety of sectors, including telecoms, US operations in the UK and online retailers.