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.