S&W has promoted Ben Laing (1) to M&A partner. Having joined the team in 2021 from Azets as a senior manager, he was promoted to director in 2023, and is now one of the youngest partners in the firm’s history. He specialises in corporate finance in business services and testing inspection certification and compliance sectors. While at Azets he trained as an ACA.

And Andrew Jacobs (2) has joined S&W’s consulting team as a partner to lead its regulatory consulting service. He has joined from legal services firm DWF, where he was a partner and launched its regulatory consulting practice.

FRP Advisory has made 14 promotions in its corporate finance team nationally. Daniel Brecker (1) and Thomas Edwards (2) have been promoted to corporate finance partner. 

Brecker joined the Manchester office in 2021 as associate director from Grant Thornton, where he spent six years and was an associate director. Prior to that he was at EY, where he trained in the London audit practice, before moving to Manchester to join its corporate finance team after qualifying as a chartered accountant. 

Edwards is based in Cardiff. He joined Cardiff-based Lexington Corporate Finance in January 2017 as a manager. Lexington was taken over by FRP in July 2024.

Nick Gallagher (3) has been promoted to associate director. He joined the London office in 2022 from Gambit Corporate Finance in Cardiff, where he spent five years.

The promotions to senior manager are Beth Warner (4) in Brighton, Jonathan Gonszor (5) and Byron Chadwick (6) in London, and Patrick Starrett (7) in Reading. Promotions to manager are Liam Merritt (8) in London, and George Barron (9) and Bushra Bariwala (10) in Manchester.

Oyin Quadri (11) in Brighton, Jade Burgess (12) in Cardiff and Adrien Vendran (13) in London have been promoted to assistant manager. Finally, Will Joyce (14) has been promoted to executive in the London team.

Headpoint Advisors in Birmingham has recruited Andy Moore as partner from Bracebridge Corporate Finance, where he was a managing director and spent 11 years. He has more than 30 years’ corporate finance and M&A experience. 

Moore started his career with PwC, training as an ACA, before moving into corporate finance and working for the firm across Europe, the US, and the Asia-Pacific region. In 2001 he left PwC to become a founding partner of Clearwater Corporate Finance. He spent 12 years with Clearwater, before joining Bracebridge in Birmingham in 2014.

Menzies has recruited Greg Cox (1) as corporate finance partner in London, and Dominic Lowbridge (2) as a director working across the Solent and London offices.

Cox specialises in lead advisory, and has joined from FRP Advisory, where he spent four years as M&A director. Prior to that he spent nine years with Deloitte, initially training as an ACA in audit, before moving into corporate finance.

Lowbridge specialises in financial due diligence advice, and has joined from RSM, where he spent 10 years in transaction services.

PwC has promoted Duncan Cox to head of its UK private equity business. He has been with the Big Four firm for 31 years, primarily in the deals tax practice, including three years working in the Paris office. He spent the past seven years as PwC global deals tax leader.

ICON Corporate Finance has recruited Arran Riordan as associate director in Bristol, from PwC, where he spent six years, initially training as an ACA, before moving into the financial services team.

Clearwater Corporate Finance has promoted Zack Goddard (1) in Manchester, and London-based Mark Maunsell (2) to M&A partner. Goddard is in the industrials team, and joined the firm eight years ago from PwC, where he trained as an ACA. Maunsell is in the business services team and began his career with Clearwater Corporate Finance in London.

Translink Corporate Finance UK has promoted Will Holmes to partner. He is based in the firm’s Leeds office. He joined BHP Corporate Finance 14 years ago. BHP became part of Translink in 2019. He trained as an accountant in audit, before moving into corporate finance and joining BHP.

Cortus Advisory Group has promoted Charlotte Harrington to corporate finance director. Based in Preston, she joined Cortus in 2022 from Cowgills, where she trained as a chartered accountant.

Hurst Corporate Finance has promoted Danielle Tierney to manager. She joined the firm in Manchester as an executive four years ago from EY, where she trained as a chartered accountant.

Jan Crosby has joined Alvarez & Marsal as a managing director in its corporate finance practice in London from Savills, where he was head of corporate finance. He will lead the expansion of Alvarez & Marsal’s real estate and hospitality M&A capabilities across Europe. Prior to joining Savills in 2022, he spent 28 years with KPMG, where he was latterly head of real estate M&A.

James Taylor has joined PEM Corporate Finance in Cambridge as assistant manager from Stephenson Smart in King’s Lynn, where he spent nine years and trained as an ACA.

Steve Varley (1), former chair of EY in the UK; David Tapnack (2), former chief people officer for transaction services at PwC; and Marissa Thomas (3), former COO of PwC in the UK, have launched Unity Advisory, with $300m of backing from Warburg Pincus. Varley left EY in 2023 and is chair of the law firm DWF Group. Tapnack spent 26 years at PwC, initially training as an ACA, and then co-founding its deals insight and analytics service in 2002. He was a partner for 16 years. Thomas spent more than 31 years at PwC, and was head of UK deals before becoming COO.

Shaw & Co in Manchester has recruited Jake Naylor as a deal origination executive. He previously worked as a recruitment consultant for justteachers.

CP Deals has recruited Ben Turner as a director in its Thames Valley transaction services team from KPMG, initially in Bristol, where he spent 13 years in transaction services and was a director.

Robert Hussey has joined IBI Corporate Finance (part of DC Advisory) in Dublin as a managing director, from EY, where he spent eight years and was a corporate finance partner. He spent 15 years as a strategy and finance consultant with HCIS, and five years with KPMG as a corporate finance consultant, both in Dublin.

Interpath has launched in Spain and hired the former heads of Mirabaud’s investment banking team – Enrique Aguado (1) and Álvaro Ruiz Urrutia (2) – to lead its M&A and capital markets practice. Aguado established Mirabaud’s investment banking practice in Spain, then served as global co-head of investment banking for the Swiss investment bank. He previously worked for JB Capital Markets; Citi in London and Madrid; AT Kearney; and Alantra. Urrutia started his investment banking career at Barclays Capital before joining 360 Corporate, then JB Capital Markets and Mirabaud.