FRP has launched a new office in Liverpool, headed up by Chris Ryan (1), who has joined the firm’s corporate finance team as a director from Alvarez & Marsal, where he was corporate finance director. Prior to that he spent eight years at Grant Thornton and 15 years at Initium Corporate Finance, working in lead advisory. He’s completed more than 50 deals in the £1m-100m range, and will work with Manchester-based partner Daniel Brecker to build the firm’s presence across the North West.

FRP has also recruited Jessica Ring (2) as a director in its London office, from MML Capital Partners where she was an investment director, responsible for origination and portfolio management. Prior to MML, she worked for Dunedin Private Equity and was a strategy consultant at Accenture. She will lead FRP’s national private equity coverage. And in Cardiff Geraint McGrath (3) has joined as corporate finance director from Foresight Private Equity where he was senior investment manager. Prior to that he was corporate finance director at Deloitte in Cardiff, where he spent 18 years. Also in Cardiff, Thomas Edwards (4) has been promoted to partner, and Jade Burgess (5) to assistant manager.

PwC has appointed deals partner Will Oxley to senior partner for Leeds, working across the Yorkshire region. He has been a partner in PwC’s transaction services team in Leeds for 10 years, having joined from Grant Thornton’s transaction services team in the North East, where he was also the Newcastle office senior partner. Prior to that he worked for EY. His particular focus is on deals in the construction, building products, building services and engineering segments.

MHA, the UK member firm of Baker Tilly International, has recruited John Bryant as a corporate finance partner in its Birmingham office. He has joined from RSM, where he spent three years as a Midlands-based corporate finance partner. He previously worked for Grant Thornton, BDO, Cooper Parry and NatWest in the East Midlands. MHA’s corporate finance team now exceeds 40 staff across the UK. Bryant’s role is to grow the firm’s corporate finance offering across the Midlands.

Grant Thornton has promoted David Mountjoy (1) to partner and head of financial modelling in its London office. He joined the firm in 2013 as financial modelling manager from EY, where he spent eight years and trained as a chartered accountant. Grant Thornton has also recruited Stuart Quickenden (2) as chair of the firm’s board. He is currently a senior adviser at The Boston Consulting Group, where he has spent 26 years, and is also director and chair of Octopus Investments.

RMT has recruited experienced deals adviser Michael McCulloch as head of corporate finance from UNW in the North East, where he spent 13 years and was a corporate finance senior manager. He has also joined the RMT board of directors. Prior to UNW, he worked for PwC in London and Newcastle, where he trained as an ACA before specialising in corporate finance. As well as overseeing deal execution, he will build the corporate finance team across the region.

Michael Davies has joined Azets in the North West as debt advisory assistant manager from Reality Finance in Sheffield, where he spent 10 years. Prior to that he worked for CSI Leasing in Sheffield, NCC Group and LBM in Manchester.

Alantra has recruited three M&A professionals in France from UBS: Jérôme Breuneval (1) as managing director; Maxime Moreira (2) as director; and Théo Le Mat (3) as associate. Prior to 20 years at UBS, Breuneval worked in EY’s M&A team. Moreira spent 11 years at UBS; Le Mat three. The trio will focus on deals in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and French-speaking Switzerland.

Alexander Matthes (4) has also been recruited as managing director and head of Alantra Germany. Based in Frankfurt, he joins from Vendis Capital, a private equity firm investing in European consumer scale-ups, where he has been a partner since 2021. Previously he worked for William Blair, Lazard, Dresdner Kleinwort and Commerzbank.

Interpath has recruited Vania Mermoud as managing director in its transaction services team in France. He joined from Deloitte, where he spent 19 years, primarily advising private equity and, prior to that, five years at EY.

Callum Laidlaw (1) has joined Aberdeen-based Quantify Advisors as a corporate finance associate from PwC, where he spent five years and trained as a chartered accountant. He follows Robyn Purcell (2), who joined as corporate finance manager from PwC in Aberdeen last August. She also trained as a chartered accountant at PwC, but followed that with two years as the corporate accountant at KCA Deutag.

Cortus Advisory has recruited Jim Mackway as a director in its corporate advisory team in Manchester. He now leads the firm’s synergies, integration and separation service line. He has joined from Grant Thornton in London, where he was an associate director in the M&A team. He previously worked for British American Tobacco and Sony Europe, and recently completed his MBA at Cranfield School of Management.

Sam Wallace (1) has joined Rickitt Mitchell in Manchester as a corporate finance executive. He joins from PwC, where he spent three years and trained as an ACA. He brings with him experience across industrial and infrastructure sectors, having worked with both private equity-backed and publicly listed clients.

The advisory firm has also promoted Victoria Molloy (2) to head of marketing and operations. She has been with the firm 27 years.

Raymond James has established an investment banking presence in Paris, and hired Franck Portais as managing director and head of France. He has joined from Alantra.

Quantuma has promoted Chris Newell to UK head of restructuring and insolvency, succeeding Carl Jackson who moves to the role of chair. Newell joined Quantuma in 2013 from RSM Tenon, where he spent five years.

PKF Littlejohn has launched a dedicated restructuring practice in Manchester, and hired three partners to lead the new team: Stephen Clancy (1), Paul Reeves (2) and Paul Smith (3), all from Kroll.