Stephen Welton CBE has been appointed non-executive chair of the British Business Bank. He has taken over from Lord Smith of Kelvin, who held the position for six years. In 2013, Welton helped advise the government on the establishment of the Business Growth Fund (BGF). He was the founder CEO of the BGF from 2011 to 2020, then executive chair between 2020 and 2022, and non-executive chair until July of this year. 

Prior to BGF, he co-founded CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners) and before that was managing director of Barclays Private Equity and Henderson Ventures, which he also co-founded. He was a member of the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty board between 2014 and 2022.

Claire Frangou has joined BDO as an M&A partner in the firm’s north of England corporate finance team. She has more than 25 years’ experience as a corporate financier. Based in the firm’s Manchester office, she has joined from KPMG, where she spent seven years, latterly as a corporate finance director and head of consumer M&A. She previously worked in business development for Zeus Capital, in Deloitte’s north-west corporate finance team, having started her career with Grant Thornton, where she trained as an ACA in its audit team.

Buzzacott has promoted Meera Shah (1) to head of M&A in the corporate finance team. She joined the firm from Smith & Williamson (now Evelyn Partners) in 2018 and was the fifth hire in its corporate finance function. There are now 18 people in Buzzacott’s corporate finance team, which has three service lines: M&A advisory, transaction services and valuations. Shah qualified as an ACA with Smith & Williamson, where she spent six years. She has been a valued member of the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty board. Matt Katz remains head of the Buzzacott corporate finance team he founded.

And Sriram Ainkaran (2) has been promoted to corporate finance manager. He joined the firm’s audit practice in 2015 and moved into corporate finance in 2019.

Dow Schofield Watts has set up corporate finance teams in Cardiff, led by managers Koo Aseeley (1) and Michael Dunn (2) to cover Wales and the South West; and in the East Midlands, led by partner Harry Walker (3). 

Aseeley has joined from Gambit Corporate Finance, having previously worked for Menzies Corporate Finance and PwC, where he trained as an ACA. Dunn has also joined from Gambit, and before that worked for Atradius, where he was an international trade finance specialist in the London insurance market.

As well as Walker, the East Midlands team, based in Leicester and Nottingham, comprises director Fahim Kassam (4) and associate director Daniel Chouciño (5). All three have joined from FRP Corporate Finance. 

Walker previously worked for Grant Thornton in Bristol, where he trained as an ACA. He joined FRP in 2018 to launch its East Midlands corporate finance team. Prior to FRP, Kassam worked for Alantra, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Chouciño joined FRP in 2019 after eight years with Translink Corporate Finance.

Grant Thornton has promoted Adam Hughes (1) to debt advisory director in its national corporate finance team. He joined the Bristol office from NatWest, where he was director of structural finance. Prior to that he worked for RBS.

The firm has also made three senior appointments in restructuring and insolvency. Partner Philip Stephenson (2) has moved from London to Manchester to head up restructuring in the North West. He has been with the firm for 25 years and continues to jointly lead the firm’s accelerated M&A offering nationwide. In the Midlands, Jon Roden (3) has been promoted to partner. Jon is a licensed insolvency practitioner and has built a trusted reputation in the local market. Restructuring director Rob Parker (4) has been promoted to the UK-wide restructuring lead for construction.

RSM has appointed M&A partner Helen Brocklebank (1) as its new office managing partner in Birmingham, succeeding Mark Taylor, who remains Midlands regional managing partner and head of ESG for the firm. 

Brocklebank joined RSM’s north-west M&A team in 2007 as an associate from PwC, where she had trained as an ACA in its audit team. In 2020 she transferred to the Midlands, and in 2021 became partner. She leads the M&A team in the West Midlands and is co-head of industrials and manufacturing within the national M&A team.

RSM has also recruited Ben Collett (2) from Kroll as partner in its Birmingham office to lead the firm’s performance improvement and turnaround practice within consulting. He previously worked as strategic projects director at IMI and KPMG, where he spent 24 years.

Nationwide the firm has recruited 59 graduates across its corporate finance service line – five more than in 2022. It has also recruited Stephen Darley (3) as regional leader for Asia Pacific from BDO.

Interpath Advisory has recruited Nick Parkhouse (1) as a managing director from EY, to head up its financial services deal advisory offering in the UK. At EY he was a partner heading up the financial services corporate finance practice. Prior to EY he worked in banking – focusing on structured finance including securitisation – with RBS, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Barclays Capital.

Kelly Klein (2) has joined the firm as a managing director in the valuations team from PwC, where she spent 21 years and led the firm’s UK industrials valuations team for the last seven.

FRP Corporate Finance has recruited Victoria Kisseleva as partner in its Soho office in London. She specialises in consumer and the health and beauty sector, and was most recently an independent corporate finance adviser, but prior to that worked for Manzanita Capital and Deloitte, and before that in New York for Société Générale, Schroder and JPMorgan Chase.

Cortus Advisory has recruited Raghav Jalota (1) as corporate finance manager in Manchester, from London-based boutique Khepri. He trained as an ACA with Edwards Veeder, before joining BDO and moving into corporate finance.

Saskia Barrett (2) and Molly Marchant (3) have also joined the firm as transaction services analysts. 

Helen Johnson (4) has joined as head of operations, from APL Aerial Platforms, where she was group financial officer.

Charlie Walker has been appointed deputy CEO of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). He joined London Stock Exchange Group in 2018, having previously worked within JPMorgan Cazenove’s equity capital markets team for 12 years.

Gervais Williams has been appointed president of the Quoted Companies Alliance. A veteran of fund management, he spent 17 years at Gartmore, before joining Premier Miton Group in 2011. Currently, he is a member of the AIM Advisory Panel at the London Stock Exchange.