PwC’s UK deals practice has made 11 UK partner promotions.

Nick Barlow (1) and Karen Best (2) are made lead advisory partners. Barlow was in the London valuations practice, specialising in the retail, consumer and leisure sectors. He has been with PwC 20 years. Also in London, Best is head of education and student accommodation lead advisory and has been with the firm 23 years.

Tim De-Beger (3), Alan Hendry (4), David Pedler (5) and Tom Williams (6) have been admitted as partners in the transactions team. De-Beger joined PwC 17 years ago in Bristol and is now based in London. Hendry started 19 years ago in the Glasgow office and is currently working in Frankfurt. Pedler joined PwC in Adelaide 20 years ago and is now based in London. Williams joined 18 years ago and is Birmingham-based. 

Craig Fitzpatrick (7), Mark Gregory (8) and James Lewin (9) have been made partners in the restructuring and forensics team. Fitzpatrick has been based in the Belfast office for 17 years. Gregory joined from EY in 2018. Lewin, based in Reading, joined from Grant Thornton in 2015.

Laura Morroll (10) and Shamil Ganatra (11) have been promoted to partners in the value creation and realisation team. Morroll, based in the Midlands, joined PwC after spending 22 years working in merchandising and management consulting, including with BearingPoint and Kurt Salmon. Ganatra has been with the firm 19 years and specialises in government and health sectors.

PwC has also recruited Jon Roe as a partner in its value creation and realisation team, part of the deals practice. He has joined from global consulting firm Ankura, where he led the infrastructure and project advisory business. Prior to that he spent 11 years with PwC, becoming a director in its capital project services team. He began his career at Airbus as an engineer.

FRP has acquired two regional corporate finance boutiques: Cardiff-based Lexington Corporate Finance and Newcastle-based WilliamsAli Corporate Finance. Both will now go to market as FRP Corporate Finance.

Following the £3m acquisition Lexington becomes FRP’s 28th UK office and its first Welsh office. Gary Partridge (1), who founded Lexington nine years ago, has joined FRP as partner along with the 14 other members of the team. They will work closely with FRP’s Bristol office.

WilliamsAli will enhance FRP’s M&A offering in the North East, adding to its restructuring advisory practice in the region. Its seven-strong corporate finance team includes co-founders Abu Ali (2) and Phil Williams (3), who have joined FRP as partners.

Ali has long been based in the region, training as an ACA with Clive Owen & Co in Darlington, before working for Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance in Newcastle and Quantum Corporate finance in Durham. Williams also trained with Clive Owen & Co. He previously worked for Grant Thornton, BTG McInnes Corporate Finance and as head of corporate finance for Hargreaves Services.

FRP has also strengthened its special situations M&A service with the recruitment of Ben Hughes as a partner in its London team. He comes from FTI Consulting, where he set up and led its UK special situations M&A offering. He previously worked in special situations M&A with Deloitte, AlixPartners, Zolfo Cooper and RSM. And in St Albans FRP has recruited ACA and insolvency practitioner Andy John as a restructuring partner, from Leonard Curtis.

Technology, media and telecommunications specialist Nathan Reay has joined Grant Thornton as a corporate finance partner in London. He moves from Modus Partners in Sydney, Australia, where he spent four years and was a managing partner. Prior to that he worked in Australia for Nova Entertainment, Bauer Media and Scaleup Mediafund. He started his career in London with PwC, before moving to Australia. 

PKF Francis Clark has promoted Angus Hunter (1) and Matt Pearce (2) to associate director. Hunter specialises in renewable energy M&A, and joined the firm just over a year ago from Zeta Asset Management. Prior to that he worked for EY. Pearce has been based in the firm’s Exeter office for nine years and works in transaction services.

George Harold (3), Chris Harper (4), Isaac Moore (5) and Sophie Swift (6) have been promoted to manager, and Ashley Barton (7) and Helen Han (8) to assistant manager. Harold has been with the firm eight years, training in audit then moving into corporate finance. Harper joined the Bristol transaction services team from BDO in 2022, having trained as an ACA with Citroen Wells in London. Moore trained as an ACA with PKF in Plymouth before joining the corporate finance team in 2021. Swift trained as an ACA with PwC in Southampton, before joining PKF’s transaction services team in Poole in 2020. Barton spent six years with Mazars, before joining PKF’s corporate finance team in Poole last year. And Han joined the Plymouth office in 2018 and trained as an ACA before joining the corporate finance team in 2023.

The firm has also promoted Becky Parnall to M&A associate.

Bishopsgate Corporate Finance has recruited Mohamed Karim (1) as M&A director and Cameron Rothwell (2) as M&A manager, from KPMG and PEM Corporate Finance respectively. Prior to spending six years at KPMG, Karim was at Grant Thornton, where he trained as an ACA in audit. Rothwell spent six years with PEM, where he also trained as an ACA initially in audit.

Former Corporate Finance Faculty board member and EY capital advisory partner Christopher Lowe has announced that he will join AlixPartners in February 2025, as partner and managing director, to lead its capital advisory group, which the firm plans to grow. He remains on gardening leave from EY until then.

GRAPH has promoted Matt Harrison to director as the firm grows its leadership team. He joined five years ago, and focuses on ESG and impact investment transactions. GRAPH, with offices in London and Washington DC, advises corporates and private equity firms on M&A strategies.

HMT has recruited Jack Waterman as corporate finance manager, from Kinetix Corporate Finance. He spent two years with Kinetix and before that worked in audit for Deloitte, where he qualified as an ACA.

Mark Rowntree has joined Emerson Advisers as a director in Teesside, from Price Bailey, where he spent nine years in corporate finance. Previously he worked for Cavendish Corporate Finance.

LAVA Advisory Partners has promoted Millie Counsell to assistant manager. She has been with the firm four years.

BDO has promoted Tim Betts to head of business restructuring. He succeeds Mark Shaw, who has become the UK firm’s new managing partner. Betts joined as a graduate trainee in 2003 and was made a partner in 2019.

In its sixth acquisition in the past two years, Evelyn Partners has acquired the offices of Haines Watts in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, bringing in five partners, nine directors and more than 150 professionals.