Cooke on the menu as Baker Tilly strengthens restructuring team

BAKER Tilly has strengthened its Restructuring and Recovery team with the promotion of Chris Cooke and Damian Webb, and the appointment of Diana Frangou.

All three of the new directors will cover the Central region, with Webb and Ms Frangou based in Birmingham and Cooke in the firm’s office in Milton Keynes.

Cooke has extensive corporate advisory experience in restructuring and recovery, corporate finance, lead advisory, M&A and insolvency, while Webb is a restructuring specialist with a track record of advising entrepreneurial / owner managed businesses and major strategic investors in turnaround, restructuring, insolvency, debt advisory and M&A.

Ms Frangou has more than 22 years of restructuring experience, managing local, national and international projects across a broad range of sectors.

Graham Bushby, Partner at Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery, said: “The appointment of Chris, Diana and Damian strengthens our already successful Restructuring and Recovery team. Their broad experience, covering a number of different sectors, will further enhance our offering to existing and new clients.”

Tax department beefed up at Clement Keys

CLEMENT Keys has strengthened its tax department with the appointment of a new tax manager, Adam Longmore and a tax trainee James Capel.

Longmore, left, has 15 years’ experience in corporate tax work having spent time with a mid-tier national accounting practice and a Wolverhampton based independent firm.  He will specialise in compliance and specialist tax advice.

Capel is a graduate trainee and joined the firm earlier this year having completed an MSc in Economics at the University of Glasgow.  

“We are delighted to welcome both Adam and James to the team,” says Manny Sahota, tax partner at Clement Keys.  “These appointments reflect the growth in demand for our specialist tax services as we operate in an environment of ever changing legislation in relation to corporation tax.”

BWMSCA role for Crowe Clark Whitehill partner

AUDIT and assurance partner in the Midlands office of national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, Helen Drew, left, has been elected President of the Birmingham and West Midlands Society of Chartered Accountants.

“The focus for the district society this year will be the business game for schools, the annual Practice Conference for smaller firms and programmes to support and engage with our business members,” she told the West Midlands District Society.

The business game for schools was an initiative launched by the Birmingham and West Midlands Society in 2008 and has now been picked up by ICAEW and rolled out across the country. It requires school teams to act as business advisers for a client and consider various options for their business.

Last year 198 teams took part across the country with local games in Birmingham, Telford, Worcester and Coventry.

The Birmingham and the West Midlands region pioneered the idea of the Business Advice Service which enables SMEs to get free initial advice from a chartered accountant.

“This is another initiative pioneered here which the ICAEW recognised as a valuable service and has rolled out nationally as well,” she said.

The highpoint of her year as President is the annual dinner on March 28, 2014, with a special guest speaker yet to be announced.

In her role with Crowe Clark Whitehill, she also heads up the Midlands not for profit specialism and her clients include a number of academies, independent schools, student unions and other registered charities.

She is also the firm’s Practice Assurance and Audit Quality Partner and is responsible for monitoring the quality of the work delivered by Crowe Clark Whitehill across all disciplines.