People: RSM appoints new financial due diligence partner; Accountancy firm welcomes specialist farming manager; and more

RSM, audit, tax and consulting firm, has appointed Rob McCarthy as a new financial due diligence partner.

McCarthy brings extensive knowledge of buy and sell side financial due diligence projects across a wide variety of sectors for private equity, corporate and banking clients, with a specialism in financial services.

McCarthy has over 24 years’ experience working in practice and industry, including over a decade working within a Big 4 firm based in Manchester and New York. He joins from an independent advisory firm, where he acted for clients across the North.

In his new role, McCarthy will work alongside Steve Green in the North West and Martin Athey in Yorkshire and the North East to support acquisitive businesses and funding institutions with strategic regional, national and international transactions across the North.

Tony Edwards, RSM’s head of corporate finance in Yorkshire and the North East, said: “It’s good to welcome Rob to the team. He brings a wealth of commercial and sector experience that further strengthens our Northern offering – putting us in a strong position to support dynamic businesses across the North to succeed through facilitating quality transactions.”

Rob McCarthy, added: “RSM is a prominent player in the corporate finance and financial due diligence market. The firm is at the heart of what is a robust transactional market in the North, despite the current underlying economic and political uncertainties.

“I look forward to working with Steve, Martin and the growing team to build on the success of the practice – helping to support more capital providers and businesses that are undertaking transactions in the region.”

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Hentons, the accountancy and advisory firm, is expanding its team across North Yorkshire to help farmers meet the challenges of filing VAT tax returns online every quarter.

Hentons has recruited Penny Sanderson, a specialist manager in dealing with farming and landed estate clients, to head up the Thirsk office.

Sanderson grew up on a farm, and her husband is a farm manager, giving her a full understanding of the challenges that farmers face. Sje brings over 20 years of experience in the agriculture sector and previously worked with an independent firm in Ripon.

Sanderson said: “Farms are complex businesses and need support from teams who understand how they work and the types of data they require. While the move to digital taxation comes with challenges, it also presents a huge opportunity to take a real-time approach to business reporting, which will help farms operate more efficiently.

“To be viable the farm business needs to be profitable enough to fund the demands on the business over day to day running such as tax, borrowings, reinvestment and personal drawings. Better management accounts will allow for comparison and benchmarking that will help lift the sector.

“Having management account data to hand will greatly assist in the inevitable negotiations that will be required from time to time, whether it be for bank loans, rent reviews or grant application schemes.”

Hentons advise that farmers and the landed estate need to prepare and ensure their advisors and accounting software providers have completed the necessary preparation.

Ian Wallace from Hentons in York, added: “Farming is facing unprecedented uncertainty at the moment with the approach of Brexit and the volatility of market prices which is affecting almost every sector of agricultural business.

“In the modern farming environment understanding the business is just as important as understanding the farm. Our agricultural specialists understand these pressures and are well placed to help owners navigate the challenges.”

Hentons operates offices in Leeds, York, Thirsk, Sheffield and London and employs over 100 staff.

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Haddleton Legal has appointed senior pharmaceutical lawyer Liam McIlveen to its expanding life sciences division to support growing businesses in the sector.

Mcllveen joins the Harrogate-headquartered firm from AstraZeneca where he was an in-house lawyer for over 25 years specialising in life sciences transactions, IP licences, collaborations, product disposals and acquisitions, M&A projects and other commercial and R&D deals.

James Haddleton, managing director, said: “Liam would be applying the skills he has developed during his long career in pharmaceuticals to the needs of ambitious small and mid-sized firms in the industry.

“Liam’s background as in-house counsel for a global pharmaceuticals business gives him an excellent commercial perspective on the kinds of legal and compliance issues that will be invaluable to medtech and biotech companies, including those looking to grow by acquisition, partnering or licensing.

Mcllveen added: “I am delighted to be joining the highly specialised team at Haddleton Legal whose depth of knowledge and fixed fee model is an excellent fit for innovative biotech firms that need targeted legal input and budget certainty to support their research and growth.”

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Redcentric, the Harrogate-based managed service provider has announced that Independent Non-Executive Director, Stephen Puckett, will retire from the Board of Directors.

Jonathan Kempster, Independent Non-Executive Director, will take over as Chairman of the Audit Committee.

The Company is also pleased to announce that Chris Rigg will also join the Board of Directors of the Company as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Rigg currently holds non-executive roles with Sportech plc and Ridge Pharma Limited. He was also previously Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Quantum Pharma and Chief Executive Officer at Northern Recruitment Group Limited.

Rigg is a qualified chartered accountant and will also join the audit, remuneration and nomination committees of the Board of the Company.

Chris Cole, Chairman, said: “On behalf of everyone at Redcentric I would like to thank Stephen for his service to the Company and wish him well in his future endeavours. I would also like to welcome Chris to Redcentric on behalf of the Board. He brings with him complementary skills and experience and we look forward to working with him.”