RSM Bentley Jennison appoints new corporate finance director

RSM Bentley Jennison continues its Yorkshire recruitment drive with the addition of a corporate finance director and business development consultant.

Corporate finance director Alex Johnson joins the firm from Gamestec Leisure, a £90m turnover operator of amusement and gaming machines, where he was finance director.

He joined in August 2002 after playing a significant role in the Andersens Corporate Finance team that advised Gamestec's parent firm Kunick as it went from public to private.

As finance director he was a key member of the acquisition and integration team when Gamestec acquired its competitor Rank Leisure Machine Services for £30m in February 2004.

Prior to this Johnson spent nine years at Andersens, which included several years focusing on private equity and general M&A advisory work.

Also joining the firm is business development consultant Saffron Palmer. Palmer joins RSM Bentley Jennison after nine years working at Close Credit Management, a division of Close Brothers Merchant Bank.

She was recruited to Close as the UK operations manager before becoming business development executive in 2004. She then headed the professional partnerships division in 2005 and was responsible for the research, marketing and the development of the new division.