FRP Corporate Finance has promoted Ryan Symonds (1) and James Cooper (2) to partner; Alex Hunton (3) to director in Norwich; and Olivia Norris (4), Nick Wright (5) and Karris Giani (6) to senior manager in FRP’s Soho office.

Symonds and Cooper joined the firm in 2020 as senior managers, moving from JDC Corporate Finance in Norwich. Symonds had spent six years with JDC, and prior to that had worked for Larking Gowan, having trained as an accountant with Haworth. Cooper spent four years with JDC, and 11 years with Lovewell Blake, where he trained as an ACA. Both Symonds and Cooper have the ICAEW/CISI Corporate Finance Qualification. 

Hunton joined as a senior manager in 2021 from JDC, where he spent four years. Before that he spent four years with Larking Gowan.

Norris joined last year from KPMG in Canada, where she spent three years. She trained as an accountant with Grant Thornton in London. Wright joined in 2021. He previously spent six years with Deloitte, where he trained as an ACA, before joining its London transaction services team. Giani specialises in debt advisory and joined the firm in 2021 from Santander.

In Bristol, FRP has recruited Tim Spooner (7) from KPMG, where he spent 22 years, moving into the corporate finance team after qualifying as an ACA.

Gambit Corporate Finance has recruited Oscar Webb (1) as an analyst. Also, Harrie Thorrington (2) has been promoted to corporate finance manager. Based in Bath, he joined the firm as an analyst in 2021 from Deloitte. 

The Cardiff-based advisory firm says it has further senior appointments to announce early this year.

Corporate financier Abu Ali has co-founded a new advisory firm based in the North East – River Birch Newman. He will lead the new firm’s corporate finance offering. He previously founded WilliamsAli Corporate Finance in 2019. Prior to that he worked in corporate finance at Baldwins, Quantum Corporate Finance and Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance, all in the North East. He trained as an ACA with Clive Owen & Co.

Dow Schofield Watts (DSW) has recruited Lucy Fairclough (1) as associate director of corporate finance in the Midlands. Based in the firm’s new Leicester office, she has joined from KPMG, where she spent nine years in London. Prior to that she spent nine years with PwC in London and Birmingham, where she qualified as an accountant. 

The Midlands corporate finance team was set up in September by Harry Walker (2), Daniel Chouciño (3) and Fahim Kassam (4), who joined from FRP. The plan is to expand the team further this year.

Harry Martin (5) has joined DSW from PwC as associate in its Yorkshire and North East corporate finance team, based in Leeds. He qualified as an ACA with PwC, where he spent four years. 

In the North West, DSW has expanded its transaction services team with the recruitment of Will Beckley (6) as executive from RSM, where he worked for three years, and qualified as an ACA. The firm recently recruited Declan Littler (7) as executive in the team from PwC.

HSBC veteran Warren Lewis has joined Cardiff-based Lexington Corporate Finance as senior adviser, after a 35-year career at the bank including most recently eight years as head of corporate banking for Wales, where he supported clients with major restructures, international M&A, private equity investments and MBOs.

Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) has recruited Jane Hartley (1) as senior director in its Manchester debt advisory team, where she will focus on leveraged finance. Hartley has moved from EY’s capital and debt advisory team in the North West, where she spent four years. Prior to EY she spent almost 10 years at Yorkshire Bank and before that worked for Allied Irish Bank and Lloyds. 

The team was launched a year ago with the recruitment of Jane Chadwick (2) as senior director from KPMG; she had previously spent 10 years working in the debt markets at Rothschild and HSBC, having initially trained as an ACA with KPMG.

The team will be supported by Josh Highley (3), associate director, who has moved from A&M’s London office. He previously worked for Lloyds.

In America, Arthur Mattousch (4) has joined A&M’s Los Angeles office as a managing director in its private equity performance improvement group, moving from SGS Maine Pointe. He previously spent 12 years working for Efficio – five in New York and seven in London.

In São Paulo the firm has recruited Ayres Moura (5) as a global transaction advisory group managing director and head of its Latin America capital markets practice. He has joined from EY, where he spent 26 years, including 10 as a partner based in São Paulo.

Charlotte Devlin, who was an invaluable member of the taskforce that worked on the ICAEW Cyber Security in Corporate Finance guide published last month, has been promoted to director in Grant Thornton’s cyber and digital investigations team. Originally from New Zealand, she joined the firm 10 years ago as a senior manager, from Obelisk Support.

Azets has promoted Robert Young (1) and Nicola Banham (2) to partner in its London restructuring advisory team. Banham joined Azets in 2021 from BDO. Before that she spent 10 years at Duff & Phelps, where she trained as an accountant. Young joined Azets in 2022 after more than 15 years at RSM.

RSM has recruited David Shambrook as a partner in its London restructuring team, from FRP where he spent 11 years, the last three as partner. He also spent eight years with Baker Tilly, where he trained as an accountant.

Stonehage Fleming, the international multi-family office, has recruited Gillian Ralston Jordan as head of family office in Guernsey, from JTC, where she was group director.

London Stock Exchange Group has recruited Michel-Alain Proch as CFO, from Publicis Groupe where he was CFO. Prior to this, he has held several listed company CFO positions, including at Ingenico and Atos, where he was also CEO, North America, and Group Chief Digital Officer.