Mazars boosts audit quality and advisory leadership

Mazars, the international audit, tax and advisory firm, has appointed eleven new partners across the firm. The promotions are effective 1 September 2023.

The mix of skills and expertise represented by the promoted partners reflects Mazars’ focus on delivering audit quality and continuing to expand its range of advisory solutions for a wide range of clients. The new partners work across Advisory and Consulting, Audit, Accounting and Outsourcing Solutions, Private Client and Tax and span multiple offices across the UK.

Four of the new partners began their careers as graduates at Mazars, reflecting the firm’s ongoing commitment to developing talent.

CEO, Phil Verity, said: “We are thrilled to be appointing eleven partners and these appointments are a testament to their expertise and the commitment they have shown to their clients and teams. They should all be very proud of reaching this significant milestone.

Nurturing talent and developing our people is central to our firm, and we’re particularly delighted that four of our new partners joined us as graduates and have built their careers with us. We’re committed to investing in our people and supporting their continued development as we build our leadership team of the future.

Having strength and depth of expertise across our offices is also integral to enabling us to deliver the highest standard of work for all of our clients. We’re therefore delighted to appoint partners across several locations, as well as in several business areas.”

The new Partners are:

Helen Parker, Consulting, London office
Andy Hickson, Audit, Nottingham office
Pauline Davison, Outsourcing, Leeds office
Ashley Barraclough, Audit, Leeds office
Chris Hudson, Audit, Leeds office
Conrad Volker, Assurance, Leeds office
Claire Cowen, Tax Advisory, Leicester office
Martin Orme, Audit, London office
Catriona Lawrie, Advisory, London office
Ross Lambert, Private Client, Milton Keynes office
Mark Surridge, Audit, Birmingham office

Helen Parker, Partner – Consulting

Having joined Mazars as a graduate, Helen now leads Mazars’ Strategy Consulting services. Her focus is on supporting clients to bridge the gap between business and people strategies to optimise performance and value creation.

As a Partner, Helen will focus on post-merger integration and Initial Public Offering readiness services, which are typically complex, large-scale transformative events. Critical to the success of these events is people-led change, and Helen has developed a particular interest in organisational culture and designing ways to engage her clients’ teams and bring them on the transformation journey.

Andy Hickson – Audit

Andy serves an audit client portfolio of owner-managed businesses, private equity-backed groups and a number of infrastructure asset-holding entities.

As a member of the Quality Monitoring team, Andy has been involved in national audit quality initiatives. Outside of audit, he has been heavily involved in the delivery of training to students in the UK, as well as management teams across Central and Eastern Europe.

Pauline Davison - Outsourcing

As a Partner, Pauline will continue to lead and grow the outsourcing offering for privately owned businesses and will take responsibility for the outsourcing team’s people strategy.

Pauline is passionate about helping fast-growing businesses to scale, delivering part or all of a finance function which provides business owners with relevant and timely information on which to make commercial decisions.

Ashley Barraclough - Audit

Ashley relocated to Leeds from South Africa and joined Mazars in 2007. As a Partner, Ashley will continue to focus on audit quality and providing audit services to large privately owned businesses and private equity-backed mid-market clients.

Ashley is passionate about creating positive and inclusive teams where every individual has an equal opportunity to develop to their full potential.

Chris Hudson – Audit

Chris joined Mazars as a graduate in 2010 and works with privately owned and private equity-backed mid-market clients across a variety of sectors. He has particular experience in auditing insurance broking and wealth management businesses.

As a Partner, he will look to expand business opportunities and develop the team at all levels to ensure the firm has a strong foundation for future growth.

Conrad Volker - Assurance

Conrad relocated to Leeds from South Africa in 2003 and joined the Mazars’ Technology & Digital team in 2020. Leading on the System and Organisation Controls Assurance service offering in the UK, he is supported by a team based in the UK and Delhi. Conrad is experienced in risk and IT assurance across a variety of sectors and industries, and predominantly in financial services with a focus on asset and wealth management.

As a Partner, Conrad will continue to lead and grow the System and Organisation Controls / third-party assurance offering in the UK and will work closely with colleagues across Mazars’ international offices to develop and refine a global System and Organisation controls methodology.

Claire Cowen – Tax Advisory

Claire joined Mazars in 2018 and advises large and listed multi-national groups on international tax issues. She is also the global tax lead of Mazars’ consumer sector offering.

As a Partner, Claire will continue to focus on strengthening the firm’s tax advisory offering for Public Interest Entities.

Martin Orme - Audit

Martin joined Mazars as a graduate in 2011 and specialises in banking audit. He works with teams in our London, Manchester and Leeds offices. His expertise lies in working with retail and commercial banks, together with similar entities such as building societies.

Martin has played a key role in growing the Banking Audit team from 12 to over 150 people. He is the Audit Quality lead within the business unit. As a Partner, Martin will continue to grow the Banking Audit team with a focus on delivering quality.

Catriona Lawrie - Advisory

Catriona leads the Accounting Advisory Services team, which assists clients in the interpretation and application of financial reporting requirements. She is a technical accounting specialist, with a broad range of accounting expertise covering IFRS and UK GAAP. She advises clients across a spectrum of sectors and sizes.

As a Partner, Catriona will continue to focus on providing quality accounting advice to clients and building a thriving advisory practice by further developing the Accounting Advisory Services offering.

Ross Lambert – Private Client

Ross joined Mazars as a graduate in 2010 and works in the Milton Keynes Private Client team. As a Financial Planner, he provides holistic financial planning advice to high-net-worth private clients.

As a Partner, Ross will continue to support the growth of the Private Client business in Milton Keynes.

Mark Surridge – Audit

Mark is the sector lead for local government external audit. Both ACCA and CIPFA qualified, he has a background in delivering external audit, internal audit and advisory services to clients in the local government, health, housing and higher education sectors.

As a Partner, he will support Mazars’ strategy of ensuring that the firm acts in the public interest. He will continue to develop talent and deliver high-quality service to clients.