MHA has recruited Rob Dawes as a corporate finance partner in its Manchester office, where it is building a dedicated transaction services team. This new team will work with private equity firms and mid-market corporates to provide financial due diligence and strategic deal advisory services.

Dawes has joined from Grant Thornton, where he spent five years in its Manchester office and was a director. Prior to this, he worked in corporate finance roles for BDO and KPMG in Manchester and had a previous spell with Grant Thornton in Australia. He trained as an ACA with PwC.

Deloitte has made five promotions to corporate finance partner: Kiren Asad (1), Danielle Burrowes (2), Socrates Mokkas (3), Robert Murray (4) and Tom Wollaston (5).

Asad has spent five years with Deloitte, having previously been with Strata Partners and KPMG. In 2016, she won the outstanding achievement award for the ICAEW Diploma in Corporate Finance. Burrowes has been with the firm five years and previously worked for EY. Mokkas has been with the firm four years and previously worked for Telenor, Deloitte and the UK Competition Commission. Murray has spent 14 years with Deloitte, starting immediately after graduating from the University of Birmingham with a first class degree in economics. Wollaston, who specialises in financial modelling, has been with the firm eight years, and before that worked for Grant Thornton and Baker Tilly.

Deloitte has also promoted seven to partner in transaction services: Richard Ellingham, Laurence Garrod, James Hilburn, Nitika Mehra, Adam Ray, Hayley Thompson and Andrew Ward.

Robert Callaghan (1) has joined Corbett Keeling as an assistant director. He previously worked for Mazars and EY, having started his career as an investment banker and spending 10 years with CIBC World Markets in both London and Vancouver. His corporate finance experience is predominantly in advising smaller companies.

Matthew Williams (2) has also joined the team as a corporate finance analyst. He previously spent seven years as a professional rugby player for London Irish and represented England U20s at the junior rugby world cup.

James Lewin has been promoted to assistant manager at PEM Corporate Finance. He joined the Cambridge-based corporate finance firm in August 2022 as an executive, moving from Mercer & Hole in London, where he had trained as an ACA, before moving into transaction services and corporate finance. Prior to training as an accountant, he spent four years as an independent financial adviser, based in Norwich.

RG Corporate Finance has recruited Euan Mulholland as a corporate finance executive from PwC in Newcastle, where he was a senior associate. He spent four years with PwC in the city, training as an ACA with the firm before moving into transactions.

Cardiff-based Lexington Corporate Finance has recruited Evan Norvill as an executive from Deloitte, bringing with him eight years’ experience in audit practice. He spent four years with Deloitte and before that four years with UHY Hacker Young, where he trained as an ACA.

Joel Segal has joined RSM in London as a partner to head up the firm’s business transformation services, including the digital and data practice. He has more than 25 years’ experience as a strategic adviser, including eight years as a partner with PwC and a total of 10 years with EY. Most recently, he was a director with Cognia Law and in 2021 he founded a health and well-being business, Aquian.

Evelyn Partners has recruited Mark Hendry as a partner to head up a new cyber security practice. He is highly experienced in information security and data protection risk, having previously worked for DWF, where for the past three years he was director of cyber security. He has also worked at Deloitte and PwC. 

Evelyn has also recently acquired Dart Capital, a boutique wealth manager based in the City of London with nearly £750m of assets under management.

PwC has promoted Chris Hawes to managing director in its debt and capital advisory team. He joined the firm two years ago, having previously worked for M&G, HSBC, RBS Invoice Finance and GE Capital.

Alantra has launched its investment banking headquarters in London. Established in Madrid in 2001, Alantra merged with Catalyst Corporate Finance in the UK in 2017. Rebranded Alantra worldwide, the firm is now based in 22 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. 

Miguel Hernández (1), CEO of investment banking, Andy Currie (2), co-chairman of investment banking, and Sarah Shephard-Smith (3), CFO and COO of investment banking, will all be based in the new office in Cannon Street, along with 150 advisers covering M&A, debt, credit portfolio advisory, structured finance and asset-backed securitisations.

The firm has also recruited Richard Ludwig (4) as director in London, to advise on M&A in the telecoms sector. He previously worked for Torch Partners, RBC Capital Markets and SMBC Nikko Capital Markets.

The addition forms part of Alantra’s strategy to expand its sector-specialised offering and follows several senior hires in the past 12 months. Alantra’s technology investment banking team has a proven track record of helping established and emerging growth companies achieve their growth and liquidity objectives. Technology sub-sectors that the team covers include communications and networking, financial technology, internet and digital media, the internet of things and smart industry, software, technology-enabled business services, and gaming.

In New York, the firm has recruited Aakash Bhasin and Petru-Santu Acquaviva as managing directors, from Turtle Bridge Advisers and BNP Paribas respectively. Joe Nau has also joined the New York office as VP focused on tech M&A from Catalyst Tech Ventures. Director Jon de Perdigo has transferred from Madrid and VP Alexandre Maroufi from Paris.

Catherine Grum, who was head of family office services at BDO, has set up her own specialist consultancy for family offices – Catherine Grum Consultancy. She spent three years at BDO and before that was head of family office services at KPMG. Prior to that she established and then headed up the private office for Salamanca Group. She was previously head of wealth advisory for the EMEA region at Barclays Wealth Management, having trained as a lawyer with Allen & Overy.