Grant Thornton has promoted Keely Woodley (1) to head of deals and business consulting and eight new partners in the firm’s M&A and transaction advisory services (TAS) teams across the UK.

Woodley has been with the firm 19 years, having started her career with 3i. She specialises in business services M&A and is a member of the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty board.

There are three new partners in the UK regions: Stuart Davies (2) based in Cambridge; Jamie Roberts (3) in Cardiff; and Matt Bryden-Smith (4) in Manchester. 

Davies has spent 14 years with the firm, having trained as an ACA before moving into its corporate finance team. 

Roberts has been with Grant Thornton 18 years, and previously worked for PwC, where he trained as an ACA. 

Bryden-Smith has spent 10 years with the firm, and previously worked for Rickitt Mitchell and Touche Ross, where he trained as an ACA.

And in London, five sector specialists have been promoted to partner: Simon Blackburn (5), head of financial services M&A; Victoria Giles (6), specialist in skills and training sector M&A; Paul Lynch (7) in financial services due diligence; James Moore (8) in transactions tax; and TAS expert Chris Sharpe (9).

Blackburn has been with Grant Thornton for 13 years and Giles for 14 years. Lynch joined the firm three years ago from Apex Group, having previously worked for Alvarez & Marsal, Deloitte and HSBC. Moore joined three years ago from EY, and had previously worked for Deloitte. Sharpe joined 11 years ago, moving from Zolfo Cooper, where he spent 10 years.

The firm has also promoted six assistant directors to director: Will Rose in the Thames Valley; Toby Hare in Cambridge; Humza Khan in Manchester; and Jonny Bedford, Ryan Dearman and Mayoo Thushaarah in London.

A further 43 promotions have also been made across Grant Thornton’s M&A and TAS teams.

Woodley said: “Despite recent economic headwinds, our deep insight and close alignment with some key growth sectors, such as healthcare, education, software as a service and other business services such as sustainability, travel, facilities management and waste and recycling, give us confidence in the future.”

EY has promoted John Divers, a partner with more than 20 years of experience in the deals market, to head of transaction diligence for the north of England. He joined EY’s Edinburgh office as partner in 2019 from Deloitte, where he had spent 18 years and had trained as a chartered accountant. He has significant experience in the technology, media and telecommunications and business services sectors and is now based in EY’s Manchester office.

Gambit Corporate Finance has recruited Oliver Phillips (1) as corporate finance director and Sam Ferrell (2) as debt advisory director. They have moved from PIB Group and Santander respectively. 

Phillips has more than 20 years’ corporate finance experience in capital raising, M&A and strategic financial planning, having begun his career at PwC before moving into industry. He was also a director in EY’s capital and debt advisory team in Australia before joining PIB, an Apax Partners’ portfolio company, as head of group treasury. He will work in origination and execution of M&A transactions at Gambit.

Farrell has more than 17 years of corporate banking experience, mainly in the South West and Wales. He spent seven years with Santander based in Bristol and before that was with Lloyds for eight years.

Birmingham-based Evolve Corporate Finance has recruited Gary Ward, who moves from Jasper Private Equity. He has more than 30 years of experience as a dealmaker, private equity investor and business growth expert, including spending 10 years running his own advisory business, Gary Ward Private Equity. He was previously a partner at Gresham Private Equity, and has also worked for LDC and PwC.

Infrastructure expert Richard Abadie, who has spent 25 years with PwC, has taken on a new role with the firm as senior infrastructure adviser on sustainable finance and energy transition. He was previously a partner, and global leader of the firm’s capital projects and infrastructure group. He was seconded to HM Treasury from 2005 to 2007 to head its Public Private Partnerships Unit. Before PwC, he spent eight years with Deloitte. He is also an independent investment committee member of IFM Investors.

Mazars has promoted Luke Seymour to M&A associate director in its Manchester office. He joined the firm two years ago from DTE Business Advisers, where he trained as an ACA.

Interpath has recruited Jayshree Shah (1) as a managing director in its value creation team; she will also lead its healthcare and life sciences business across the firm. She has joined from FTI, where she was the EMEA healthcare and life sciences sector lead in the corporate finance and restructuring practice. She has more than 20 years’ experience in advising both corporate and private equity clients, having previously worked for PwC and EY. Prior to FTI, she was European strategy leader at NASDAQ-listed digital interactions company Conduent (formally Xerox).

Robbie McFaul (2) has also been recruited by Interpath as a transactions services director. He has moved from PwC, where he spent 11 years specialising in healthcare transactions. He is based in Interpath’s Leeds office.

IMAP has a new M&A partner firm in Saudi Arabia – Haykala. Hisham Ashour is managing partner of Haykala, which has its headquarters in Riyadh and also has an office in Dammam. Haykala provides a range of M&A, restructuring and turnaround, corporate finance, and IPO advisory services. 

Helen Brocklebank has been appointed as RSM’s regional managing partner in the Midlands. She joined the firm’s M&A team in 2007 as an associate, and will continue to head up RSM’s M&A team in the West Midlands. She has succeeded Mark Taylor.