People in the news: Dains, S&W, Xeinadin

Cooper Parry has appointed Adam Waller as national tax partner and head of tax consulting, based in Manchester. He will lead the national tax advisory channel, driving strategic advisory work across business tax, private client, and transaction tax. Waller brings over 25 years of experience, including the last 14 at PwC, where he was market senior partner for the north west, advising a wide range of clients from entrepreneurial start-ups to large corporates and high-net-worth individuals.

Dains has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of David Silver as group chair. Silver brings more than two decades of investment banking experience, and was head of European investment banking at US bank Baird until 2020. A qualified lawyer with an MBA from London Business School, Silver has transitioned in recent years to chair and non-executive roles within private equity-backed professional services firms. He is currently non executive director at Phaidon, and Acuiti Labs, and non executive chair at Momentum ITSA. Meantime, Rebecca Jones (corporate tax), Samantha Johnson (payroll), and James Shepherd (employment tax) have been promoted to partner. 

DJH has appointed Colette Lennon as a director to help drive growth at its Altrincham office, with the focus on creating stronger local networks and delivering additional services, such as specialist tax and estate planning and dedicated HR support. The chartered accountant will focus on business owners and SMEs, as well as supporting academy school clients. Previously she was a client director at Bennett Brooks.

S&W has appointed Phil Gunter-Rees as energy and infrastructure lead in its valuations & modelling team. He has 30 years of experience in the energy and infrastructure sector, including roles at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, RBS and Thames Water. Gunter-Rees joins from Grant Thornton where he was a partner in the valuations and financial modelling team, and prior to that, spent seven years at EY working with infrastructure funds, banks, and asset owners.

Xeinadin has promoted 10 partners bringing the total number to over 200 across the group, spread across nine hubs. The new partners are Adam Marlow, Alan Taylor, Bill Moores, Deborah Fletcher-McVay, Gill Lowcock, Janet Charlton, Mark Everington, Susie Campion, Yvonne Coulston and Carl Danvers, a founding member of Xeinadin, is promoted to partner and also area managing partner for the Leicester area.

BTG Advisory has appointed Vijay Merchant as partner to enhance its range of restructuring services and expertise in the West Midlands, based out of the Birmingham office. He brings almost two decades of experience in business turnaround, restructuring and advisory, with a particular focus on supporting corporates and their stakeholders in stressed and distressed scenarios, advising both lenders, corporates and SMEs. Previously he was a senior director at Kroll.

Foresight Group has appointed Jamie Pelmear as an investment associate, based in its new office in Exeter. He joins the private equity team and will support the deployment and management of the £100m Foresight South West Fund. Pelmear brings 10 years of experience working with growing businesses across the region and will work closely with the wider team to identify and support local companies with long-term growth potential. Previously he was corporate finance senior manager at Bishop Fleming in Exeter.

Drax Group has appointed Frank Lemmink as chief financial officer (CFO) and executive director replacing Andy Skelton, who is retiring and will stay on for a four-month transition period. Lemmink will take up the position on 1 September and joins from Shell, where he has held senior finance and risk management leadership roles over a 20-year international career, most recently as executive vice president, finance of Shell’s integrated gas and upstream business. Prior to this he spent a decade at the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands.

Newland Homes has appointed Helen Portman as finance manager as part of a wider investment in operational efficiency and financial insight. This is a newly created role, reporting to finance director, Zoe White.  Portman will take the lead on maximising the potential of the company’s Coins ERP software system, as well as assisting with production of month end management accounts. Previously she was a senior management accountant at Pegasus Homes, and is CIMA and AAT qualified.

RS Group has announced that non-executive director Louisa Burdett will step down as chair of the audit committee, but will remain as an AC member and in her other board roles. She is succeeded by Carole Cran, who is a non-executive director and current member of the audit committee. Chartered accountant Cran is currently chief financial officer of Halma plc and originally trained at KPMG.