Mercer & Hole ups the equality ante

Mercer & Hole has pushed ahead in the female partnership stakes with its latest promotion, Liz Cuthbertson. The firm can now boast 30% of its partners are female. Previously Mercer were “joint leaders” in the Accountancy Age Top 50 with 25%, alongside Frank Hirth and Anderson Anderson & Brown, in percentage terms at least. Cuthbertson joined the firm in 2006 as senior manager following a diverse career spanning several firms including KPMG in Hamburg, Coopers and Lybrand and Rawlinson & Hunter.

Former M&S FD Gary Plumpton has taken up a CFO role at fibre optics provider Geo, having previously been divisional FD for Dell. He spent five years at M&S, latterly as FD of its clothing division, having also served as financial controller for British Airways.

A promotion at Monmouth Building Society sees financial controller William Carroll bumped up to FD. This could be a route to the top for Carroll, as the firm moved FD Andrew Lewis to chief executive in 2005. An auditor by trade, Carroll joined the building society from Deloitte.

Andrew Diver takes on the role of head of taxation at Suffolk firm Beatons Group and will focus on both corporate and personal tax clients. Driver is a chartered tax adviser who worked at RSM Robson Rhodes, then for Grant Thornton after their merger.

Deloitte are concentrating on bolstering its debt advisory division. The firm recently shifted Roger Esler, its corporate finance partner, to the department as it looks to grow the group.

Other changes to add strength to its regional presence include recruiting Jonathan Thompson, based in Leeds, and Chris Skinner, based in London, both promoted to director. The promotions keep coming as John Gregson, who joined the debt advisory team in 2005, moves up to associate partner.