People: Raft of hires at PwC; Legal director appointed; New MD at building and property consultancy; and more

PwC has announced a raft of senior promotions across its Northern practice.

Six new partners will be entering the partnership – Rebecca Gissing, Nick Cook, Susie Holmes, Zoe Watters, Paul Jones and Gareth Hall.

Gissing has 17 years of experience providing audit and assurance services to clients across a number of industries and sectors, predominantly focused on private businesses.

Gissing spent her first four years with PwC New Zealand, before transferring to Manchester, where she has been based for the last 13 years. Gissing is transferring tothe Leeds office from July 2019. As a partner she will continue to focus on providing high quality services to local businesses.

Susie Holmes will lead PwC’s Financial Services tax team in the north and has worked in FS tax with PwC for over 20 years. Originally from Hull she started her career with PwC as a graduate in our London FS tax team and has been based in PwC’s Leeds office for the last 13 years.

Holmes works with a range of financial services businesses including building societies, mutual and proprietary insurers, retail banks and asset managers. Whilst based in the Leeds office Holmes also works with a number of clients across the UK regions as well as in Yorkshire and the wider north.

Nick Cook will be based in the North East and has been with PwC for 19 years. He provides audit and assurance services to a portfolio of clients including private businesses, private equity backed companies and listed companies. Nick has broad experience, having spent 3 years on secondment to Australia and 6 months on secondment in industry. He also has significant transaction experience including working on acquisitions and listings.

Zoe Watters has worked at PwC for 14 years, joining the firm from the Civil Service having previously worked in telecoms and banking where she qualified as a Management Accountant. Watters works with both the public and private sector on infrastructure projects across – range of sectors including; transport, health, energy and education.

Watters will be the Infrastructure & Government regional leader, responsible for all infrastructure clients, markets and people outside of London and will lead teams in Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Jones will lead PwC’s Financial Services due diligence team across the north and midlands. Jones has worked in the FS industry for 20 years supporting both corporate and private equity clients on a mix of buy-side and sell-side support.  Whilst he is based in the Manchester office he also works nationally supporting a range of national and international clients.

Hall joins PwC from Accenture where he was a senior member of their FS Technology Advisory Practice.  Through a number of roles within Accenture Gareth has a proven capability to deliver technology enabled change across the Telecoms, Public Services and Financial Services industries through managing senior client relationships, building high performing teams and delivering innovative solutions. Gareth will be based Manchester and will focus on the North West market.

In addition to the new partner admissions Kelechi Igboko, Dan Pearson, Craig Willis, Dino Blackburn, Saf Ali, Terry Wharton, James Tweddle, Richard Berry and Gemma Salus-Robbins have all been promoted to director level across the Leeds and Newcastle offices.

Ian Morrison, PwC’s Yorkshire & North East regional leader said: “I’m delighted to welcome not only our new partners but would also like to extend my congratulations to our new directors too. They bring a wide range of expertise to the Northern practice across very different specialisms. Responding to the diverse needs of our clients is vital and these appointments reflect the importance we place on delivering the best service possible to our clients across the region”.

Nationally the firm is promoting 69 new equity partners. Together with 13 direct partner hires recruited during the year, the firm’s total UK partner number is now 944.

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Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has welcomed legal director Amy Millson to its expanding health practice. Millson  will be based in the firm’s Leeds office.

She brings a wealth of experience to the role, having previously worked in Capsticks’ Leeds office and prior to this, for DAC Beachcroft. She advises clients on the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law issues, from day-to-day employment related matters, through to defending complex employment tribunal claims, as well as strategic advice on issues such as restructuring, collective consultation, TUPE and medical staffing.

Millson will work closely with the growing health team in the Leeds office headed up by Rob McGough.

McGough said: ‘Amy’s arrival marks an exciting time for us as we further build on our presence in Leeds. Her skill set will enhance our existing offering and her understanding of the challenges faced by clients makes her a real asset to the team.’

Hill Dickinson’s head of employment, Kerstie Skeaping, added: ‘Amy will play a key role in developing our new team in Leeds as well as supporting our continued plans for growth both regionally and nationally.’

Millson added: ‘Hill Dickinson’s health practice has a fantastic reputation and I look forward to playing my part in helping the team achieve its goals in Leeds and beyond.’

Hill Dickinson’s national health practice operates out of offices in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and London, providing legal advice and support to the NHS and independent healthcare organisations. The firm acts for more than 100 NHS bodies and is on all of the national framework agreements – NHS SBS, NHS CPC, HealthTrust Europe, NHS Resolution and NHS Commercial Alliance.

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Yorkshire building and property consultants, LHL Group, has appointed a new managing director.

Richard Hampshire, formerly finance director, succeeds John Denton, who became managing director in 2010 and is now chairman of the York-based business, which has four offices in Yorkshire and Humber.

Hampshire, a fellow of the RICS and Chartered Association of Building Engineers, joined the company as a building and architectural technician when it was Lightly & Lightly, in Coney Street, York, in 1986, while training and gaining a higher cert in building studies at York College and a Bsc in building surveying at Sheffield Hallam University.

He became a partner of Lightly & Lightly in 1998 and finance director of LHL Group in 2005 after helping broker a merger with Doncaster-based Hawley & Partners that doubled the size of the business. He has also been company secretary and director of the LHL Group Harrogate and Hull offices.

Hampshire’s construction industry experience has covered a diverse range of projects working in the residential, agricultural, industrial, and commercial sectors.

Projects he has worked on include supporting the redevelopment of Thorp Arch Estate, near Wetherby; the adaptation of the Knavesmire School to what was then York College of Law and being project manager and part of a team, led by developer Northminster Ltd, which won the top national residential award at the 2017 RICS Awards Grand Final, for the transformation of Clementhorpe Maltings, a former derelict maltings house, into homes.

Today LHL Group, which works throughout the UK for conservation groups, local authorities, property developers, farms and agribusinesses, healthcare organisations and private individuals, providing architectural design, surveying, historic buildings conservation, quantity surveying and project management, has five directors, 33 staff and a £2.25m turnover.

Hampshire said: “It is an honour to follow in the footsteps of people of the calibre of my predecessors.  Having worked in many different roles in all the LHL Group offices, I have made contact with lots of fellow professionals and gained a valuable insight into how different aspects of the property industry operate and I will take the best of this to continue to develop LHL Group and our talented staff.”

LHL Group, which works on a wide range of commercial, residential, industrial and heritage projects throughout the North, also has offices in Hull, Harrogate and Doncaster.

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