Two new partners, eight directors and new Head of Tax for Scotland at PwC

PwC in Scotland has announced the appointment of two new partners and eight new directors across PwC’s offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In addition to this, Lindsay Hayward has been appointed as Head of Tax for Scotland and joins the Senior Leadership Team.

These new appointments take the senior staff in Scotland tally to 30 partners and 51 directors.

Robin McBurnie has 20 years of Consulting experience with a background in Finance Transformation and a reputation for building strong teams. He has led many large and complex programmes enabled by technology whilst delivering tangible business outcomes. As a partner, Robin will continue to lead transformation programmes in Financial Services.

Fellow new partner Mark Addley is one of the senior members of the Deals team in Scotland and also leads Business Recovery Services. He has extensive experience in providing advisory and restructuring services across both the private and public sector.

Cathorina Finlay has over 10 years of experience working across a wide range of financial services clients with a specific focus on FCA Client Assets regulatory compliance.

Before relocating to Scotland, director Tom Pulling was leader of the PwC’s Data Assurance team for the Middle East. With more than a decade of experience working on business and data analytics transformations, Tom will be leading the Data & Analytics team in PwC’s Assurance practice. He has wide industry knowledge but focuses on Oil & Gas, Financial Services, and manufacturing.

Craig French is a specialist in international and corporate tax, with 10 years experience advising many of Scotland’s largest companies. Craig will lead PwC’s large corporate tax team across the central belt.

Matt Cooper has been advising pension trustees and corporates in Scotland on employer covenant, restructuring and affordability since 2006. His experience includes shaping proposals in several PPF restructuring situations, assisting trustees in covenant and affordability assessments and advising corporates on managing their relationships with trustees of pension schemes to enable a high profile refinancing, involving new investment, debt for equity and group reorganisation where necessary.

Katrina Hallpike is a Financial Services specialist with over 12 years of experience advising clients on financial services transactions and restructuring, particularly focussed on valuation advisory. She has spent half of the last decade working in Singapore and offshore in the Channel Islands but returned to the UK in 2013 to lead PwC UK’s Asset Management valuations business. As a director in our Scottish Deals business, Kat will lead the Scottish valuations business with a focus on financial services.

Alan Hendry has almost a decade of M&A experience, working with a range of corporate and private equity clients. As a director in our Scottish Deals business, Alan will be focused on the central belt market, working across sectors but with a strong focus on industrial products and private business.

Olaf Pusch is an experienced director and leads the Accounting Consulting Services hub in Edinburgh. He has over 16 years of experience providing relevant and practical support to clients based in the UK, US and Europe and assisting with the application of complex accounting standards, GAAP conversions and capital raising.

Emily Dunstan has more than 10 years experience in Assurance, specialising in Financial Services. As a director within the Scotland Assurance practice she will have a key role in the realisation of our UK Funds Centre of Excellence based in Edinburgh

In addition to new partners and directors, Lindsay Hayward, an Edinburgh-based partner who has been with the firm for 20 years, most recently leading our Scottish Financial Services tax team and our corporate tax team operating across the central belt has been promoted to head of tax for Scotland and to the Senior Leadership Team, making four out of the eight-strong team female.

Lindsay Hayward said:

“This is an exciting time for our Scottish tax team – we’re actively recruiting across all three offices and, with an integrated team of experts across a wide range of specialisms, we are continuing to attract a number of fantastic Scottish-headquartered and inbound global clients. We are also ambitious, with plans to strengthen our centres of excellence across both oil and gas and funds.

“Our main focus over the coming year will be to help our clients, and the wider business community in Scotland, navigate emerging regulatory, economic and geo-political challenges and, crucially, to help them make the most of any opportunities that may arise along the way.”

Lindsay Gardiner, regional chairman, PwC in Scotland, said:

“These appointments signify the changing nature of business in Scotland and as you would expect from an agile firm, our appointments reflect not only where the Scottish market is at the moment but also where we see it going over the coming years.

“We have a broad team of specialists focused on helping our clients not only be successful but to swiftly and effectively deal with future challenges and opportunities as they arise and this reflected in our senior team which includes data,cyber, pensions, risk and governance, regulation and people services alongside our traditional audit, tax and deals practices.

“It’s a strong spread of talent across all of our offices, allowing us to offer local expertise backed up by a strong network of global talent if required.”