AlixPartners has recruited Chris Lowe as a partner and managing director and head of capital advisory in its London office. He was previously a capital and debt advisory partner at EY, spending 16 years with the Big Four firm and co-founding its debt advisory practice. Prior to EY he worked for Citi and HSBC, having started his career at BAE Systems, where he trained as an accountant. He was previously a member of the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty board.

Stuart Goodman (1) has been promoted to head of corporate finance at S&W (formerly Evelyn Partners), to lead its team of more than 40 M&A and debt advisory professionals. Based in Woking, he joined the firm in 2009, training as an accountant in audit, before joining its corporate finance team.

S&W has also recruited Lachlan Dorrity (2) as director, and David Ramsay (3) and Katherina Zeal (4), as assistant managers in its London debt advisory practice. In September last year, former Corporate Finance Faculty board member Fenton Burgin joined from Deloitte as a partner to significantly expand S&W’s debt advisory team.

Dorrity has joined from Clearwater, where he spent seven years as director. He previously worked in Grant Thornton’s debt advisory practice for four years, and prior to that, spent six years in KPMG’s restructuring advisory team, where he trained as an ACA.

Ramsay has joined from Blick Rothenburg’s FCA auditing team, where he worked with regulated venture capital and private equity firms, and trained as an ACA. And Zeal has joined from KPMG’s banking and financial services audit team, where she too trained as an ACA.

Cavendish has opened a new office in Manchester and recruited Oliver Tebbutt from Deloitte in Manchester, as a partner to lead the firm’s mid-market M&A push in the North West of England. He spent 23 years with Deloitte, latterly as a corporate finance partner, having joined in 2001 after graduating from the University of Cambridge.

Corbett Keeling has promoted Rob Callaghan to corporate finance director. He joined the firm in 2023 from Mazars, where he was associate director. Prior to that he spent seven years at EY, and before that 11 years at CIBC World Markets, which included a one-year secondment to its office in Vancouver.

Francesca Bailey (1) and Jon Huggins (2) have been promoted to corporate finance directors at Azets. Bailey joined Azets in 2023 as associate director from HW Fisher, where she spent seven years, initially training as an ACA in audit before moving into the firm’s corporate finance team. Huggins joined Azets in Poole as a corporate finance senior manager in 2022, from Inspire Professional Services. He spent six years at Inspire over two stints, in between which he spent three years in Vancouver as a project manager at Symmetry Lighting.

Deloitte has promoted Suresh Kanwar to managing partner for UK financial services, succeeding Richard Hammell, who was in the role for five years. Kanwar has also joined Deloitte UK’s executive team. He has been with Deloitte for nine years and prior to his latest promotion, he was head of Deloitte’s banking and capital markets team in the UK. He started his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in 1998 and was promoted to managing director in its capital markets business before joining Deloitte as partner in 2016.

LAVA Advisory Partners has recruited Felix Neate (1), Joseph Sharp (2) and Sunil Samani (3) as associate directors. Neate spent four years with PwC, where he trained as an ACA, followed by five years at Coller Capital as technology integration architect. In 2022, he began working in M&A advisory as a vice president at Dyer Baade & Company.

Sharp started his career with Highstead Partners in London, before joining KPMG in New Zealand and advising on M&A. He spent two years in New Zealand, followed by three in Australia with KPMG, before returning to the UK to join LAVA.

Samani has joined from EY, where he spent seven years and was assistant director in private equity transactions services. Before that he spent five years in equities at Goldman Sachs, having started his career with EY, where he spent four years and trained as a chartered accountant in transaction advisory services.

Summer Bond (4) has also joined LAVA as its first operations coordinator, moving from Christie’s, where she spent three years.

Marc McDermott (1) joins FRP Advisory as a director in its Newcastle office, from Visualsoft, where he was CFO. He qualified as a chartered accountant with EY in Newcastle, before joining Bank of Scotland in 2002. He went on to work for the Bank of England and the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he became the bank’s regional director for the North East of England. In 2012 he joined global engineering group British Engines as CFO, and in 2017 joined Visualsoft. FRP set up a dedicated corporate finance team in Newcastle last year, with the acquisition of WilliamsAli Corporate Finance.

And in London Amit Bagga (2) has been promoted to associate director in FRP’s debt advisory team, and David Kola (3) to deal origination manager.

Bagga joined the firm in 2023 from Grant Thornton’s debt advisory team, where he was manager. He trained as an ACA with Grant Thornton in Birmingham. Kola joined from Skill Capital in 2023, having previously worked for AlphaSights. And Pearce joined in 2021 from international trade platform Ebury.

FRP has also opened a new office in Bournemouth, headed by restructuring partner Sandy Kinninmonth (4).

BDO has recruited Jonathan (Jono) Szoke as a director in its ESG due diligence practice. He has joined from KPMG, where he spent three years and was associate director in its ESG due diligence team in London. Prior to that he spent 15 years with NCC Environmental Services, working in South Africa, Egypt and the UAE.

James Caplan has joined Forvis Mazars as an associate director in its Manchester corporate finance team. He has joined from Bibby Line Group, where he was an investment manager. Prior to that he worked as an investor at Maven Capital Partners, and as associate director at Knight Corporate Finance. He started his career with Moore Kingston Smith, where he trained as an ACA before moving into corporate finance.

EY has recruited Olivia Prew as associate partner and head of private mid-market in the Midlands from Clearwater, where she was senior director and head of origination. She spent 14 years with Clearwater in Birmingham and prior to that worked for the Co-operative Bank and Lloyds as an adviser to corporates.

Alantra has promoted Alex Trevor (1) and Oliver Hickley (2) to director in its London investment banking team. Trevor joined four years ago from Baird. Before that he worked for Edmond de Rothschild and Canaccord Genuity. Hickley joined Alantra’s M&A team eight years ago from PwC, where he trained as an ACA.

M&A advisory firm Rickitt Mitchell has promoted Joe Powell (1) to director and Charlotte Potts (2) and James Kidner (3) to assistant director. Powell joined the M&A advisory firm in 2021 from BDO, where he trained as an ACA. Potts and Kidner both joined in 2019 from PwC, where they trained as ACAs. The Manchester-based firm has also promoted Neil Mitchell to managing partner.