James Fieldhouse (1) has been promoted to partner in BDO’s M&A team. Fieldhouse, who is based in Manchester, also heads up the national human capital M&A team. He has been with the firm for 20 years, having initially trained as an ACA in its audit team before taking a six-month secondment to BDO’s Sydney office. When he returned from Australia in November 2007, he moved into corporate finance.

Amar Patel (2) is now a partner in BDO’s special situations M&A team. He joined the firm in 2018, having previously spent seven years with Grant Thornton, where he trained as an ACA in its restructuring and debt advisory team.

The firm has also promoted James Adams (3) and Brian O’Connell (4) to the partnership in its financial modelling assurance services team. 

Adams provides transactional due diligence on financial models. He joined the firm in 2012 from PKF, where he spent seven years and trained as an ACA. 

O’Connell provides modelling advice on, among other things, acquisitions and refinancings. He is an ACA who joined BDO three years ago from EY. He previously worked for the Climate Policy Initiative, RBS and PKF.

Rosie Barnes (5), who provides forensic accounting services post-deal on completion accounts and earn-outs, has also been promoted to partner. She joined the firm in 2003 from Mazars, where she trained as an ACA.

In restructuring, Kiri Holland (6) and John Strowger (7) have been promoted to partner. Holland has been with the firm for 17 years, having previously worked for Begbies Traynor Group and Mazars. Strowger has been with the firm for 18 years, having initially trained as an ACA in its audit team. 

Mark Spencer (8), who has been with the firm for nine years and advises on the structuring of groups of companies and transactions, has also been promoted to partner. He previously worked for Deloitte and PwC.

Azets has recruited Chris Archer (1) and Gary Hyem (2) as corporate finance partners, and promoted David Simmons (3), Stephen Garbett (4) and Nick Barker (5) from director to partner in corporate finance.

Based in Yorkshire, Archer has joined from Armstrong Watson, where he was a corporate finance partner for three years. He previously advised on M&A for FRP and Grant Thornton, and before that worked in specialist and acquisition finance for Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank (now Virgin Money). He is an ACA.

Hyem is based in Birmingham and previously worked in corporate finance for FRP and Grant Thornton, as well as the independent boutique advisory firms Cattaneo Corporate Finance and M3 Corporate Finance. He trained as an ACA with Arthur Andersen before working for PwC, EY and Clearwater International Corporate Finance. He also has five years’ experience as a private equity investor with the Baring English Growth Fund. 

Simmons is based in Manchester and joined Azets three years ago from Ballard Evans Corporate Finance. He has worked for Ascent Corporate Finance, Atlas Corporate Finance, GrowthAccelerator, RSM, Westhouse Securities and Barrowman Campbell. He originally trained as a chartered accountant with EY.

York-based Garbett worked for Garbutt + Elliott and JWPCreers before he joined the firm two years ago. 

Barker is also based in York and joined Azets two years ago from Garbutt + Elliott, and before that spent 16 years with JWPCreers.

Four new directors have been promoted in RSM’s national corporate finance team: in Edinburgh, Jane Roberts (1); in London, both Nick Gilbey (2) and Graham Weston (3); and in Nottingham, Ed Rozwadowski (4). 

Roberts trained as a chartered accountant with Scott & Paterson in Edinburgh before moving to RSM in 2007. She joined the firm’s corporate finance team 10 years ago.

Gilbey specialises in forensic investigations. He joined from Deloitte in 2020, having previously spent 13 years with the Metropolitan Police.

Weston is a specialist in transaction data analytics. He joined in 2021 from EY, where he spent four years and trained as a chartered accountant in its transactions team. 

Rozwadowski has been with the firm for 11 years, having initially trained as an ACA in its audit team.

The firm has also promoted Jack Plunkett (5) to director in its London-based restructuring advisory team. He has been with the firm for 16 years, having initially trained as an ACA in its audit team.

Interpath Advisory has two new managing directors in its growing UK transaction services practice. The firm is investing in senior talent across its national deal advisory business.

Louise Smith (1) has joined from EY where she co-led the firm’s transaction services business in Yorkshire and the North East. Based out of Interpath’s Leeds office, she is working alongside corporate finance managing director Heath Snyder and director Ben Smith in scaling the firm’s deal advisory capabilities across the north. She spent 17 years with EY, training as a chartered accountant in its transactions team.

Matthew Townsend (2) has been promoted to managing director in its London transaction services team. He joined the firm in 2022 after eight years at FTI Consulting, having previously spent six with KPMG, working in financial due diligence for both firms. 

Interpath has also recruited Arpit Desai (3) as director in its M&A tax team from KPMG, where he worked on M&A for large corporates.

Clare Stockdale is the newly recruited associate director in LAVA Advisory Partners’ M&A team, from the London office of Australian asset management firm First Sentier Investors, where she was senior manager in corporate finance. She previously worked for KPMG, where she spent 12 years and trained as an ACA.

Three months after he joined as executive from Deloitte, Evan Norvill has been promoted to manager at Lexington Corporate Finance. He spent four years in Deloitte’s corporate finance team and, before that, four years with UHY Hacker Young, where he trained as an ACA.

Amy Herbertson (1) and Andrew Raphael (2) have joined Cortus Advisory’s transaction services team in Manchester, from Mazars and Virgin Money respectively.

Herbertson spent three years in Mazars’ transaction services team. She previously worked for five years in PwC’s audit team, where she trained as an ACA. Raphael trained as a chartered accountant with BDO in Glasgow, having joined through its school-leaver programme. He joined Virgin Money in 2020 as a senior financial analyst.

Bishopsgate Corporate Finance has recruited Sam Reynolds (1) as senior manager, as well as Patrick Boyle (2) and Rosie Glover (3) as associates. 

Reynolds qualified as an ACA with PEM’s audit team in Cambridge, before joining its corporate finance team, where he spent two years. Boyle and Glover previously interned with Bishopsgate, and recently graduated from university.

Ensors’ corporate finance and forensics team in Cambridge has a newly promoted director, Ben Croston. He previously worked in Scrutton Bland’s audit team in Colchester, where he trained as a chartered accountant before joining Ensors in 2014.