Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has promoted Newcastle-based Jonny Lees to director within its Financial Advisory team, which specialises in restructuring services.
Jonny – who focuses on assisting corporates with advice and support to help transform their businesses and add value – has been with Deloitte for nearly 12 years, previously working in Leeds and Manchester. He joined the company as a graduate from Edinburgh University in 2005.
As a key player in Deloitte’s North East Financial Advisory leadership team, Jonny provides guidance to the North East team, ensuring a locally-based, full service offering to clients in the region.
“The North East is a highly active market that constantly creates opportunities that strengthen the local economy,” he said. “As part of my new senior role at Deloitte, I’m looking forward to being a proactive contributor to the region’s businesses and assisting them with the challenges they face, to ensure they meet their goals.”
Stephen Hall, office senior partner for Deloitte in the North East, said: “Jonny’s promotion is well deserved. He has a deep and insightful understanding of the opportunities available to local businesses, as well as how to navigate any hurdles that may be encountered on the way to success. His promotion underlines our position as a market-leading restructuring practice in the region.
“Jonny will strengthen our full service offering through his significant and wide-ranging expertise, which is available on the doorstep of our local clients.”
Deloitte has also appointed two partners and five other directors to its team in the North.
The two new partners are Richard Eighteen and Annabel Rake.
Richard Eighteen is a partner in the Technology business within Consulting. He joined Deloitte in 2001 and has focused on successfully scoping and delivering large technology-enabled transformation programmes in the Insurance industry. He leads Deloitte’s strategic alliance with multiple insurance software vendors in the market.
Chief Marketing Officer Annabel Rake has also been promoted to partner. She oversees the firm’s marketing strategy and, as sponsorship director for London 2012, was responsible for the largest sponsorship programme undertaken by Deloitte. She has been with the firm for 12 years.
Eighteen and Rake are among 57 partner promotions in the UK, of which nearly one in four (23%) are women. Overall almost one in five (19%) of Deloitte’s partners are women, an increase from 14% in 2014.
Stephen Hall added: “In 2012 we published a target that by 2020 25% of our partners would be female. We have made great progress on gender diversity and we continue to prioritise the recruitment and retention of senior women. We have a strong pipeline of women at director and senior manager level who are well placed to progress in the coming years.”
Julie Campbell has been promoted to director in the Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) tax team. She specialises in tax due diligence and tax structuring on M&A transactions for private company and private equity clients.
Helen Rylands becomes a director in the employment taxes team, supporting employers in all aspects of tax compliance. Currently on maternity leave, she advises clients on maintaining appropriate systems and processes, as well as providing ad hoc support across employment tax. She was involved in the team which was recently named ‘Best Tax Team in a Big 4 Firm’ at the 2017 Tolley’s Taxation Awards.
Richard McGinn is a director in the International Audit team. He has worked across a wide range of industry sectors and specialises in working with foreign-owned clients, as well as those in the travel and hospitality sectors.
Peter Hempsall joined Deloitte in 2006 on the consulting analyst programme. He is chief technology officer of Deloitte Ventures, playing a leading role in building the firm’s innovation capabilities.
Richard Lofthouse becomes a director in the Consulting team. His expertise is in improving customer experience through large-scale business transformation, particularly for financial services clients.
Stephen Hall said: “I’d like to personally congratulate all our new partners and directors. Their promotions reflect our continued confidence and investment in the region, and in the quality of our senior team.”
In total, 124 new partners have been appointed within Deloitte North West Europe, taking the total number of partners across the newly-combined firm to 2,029. Deloitte North West Europe came into effect on 1 June 2017 and is a combination of Deloitte’s UK, Belgian, Dutch, Nordics and Swiss firms.
David Sproul, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte UK and Deloitte North West Europe, said: “Our primary motivation for combining across these markets is to positively influence the growth of our clients and further increase the growth potential of Deloitte regionally and globally. The promotion of 124 new partners is a clear example of how we are investing to do that, further strengthening our capabilities across each business area in all nine markets.”