Business advisory firm Deloitte has announced an external partner hire, as well as three partner and four director promotions as it continues to grow in the North East.
Nicola Wright joined as a partner in public sector Audit and Assurance from EY. She specialises in providing audit services to public bodies, and has extensive experience working with the NHS, local government, education, social housing and charities. Nicola now leads the public sector audit team in the North. Karen Landells has been promoted to partner in the Tax & Legal team and Carol Murray has been promoted to partner in Risk Advisory. Karen works in the Business Tax Team focussing on working with private businesses as they grow, transact and undergo transformational changes. She specialises in the health and social care sector where she supports her clients with key tax compliance and advisory issues. Carol leads advisory work around governance, risk management and change risk across the public sector. Helping her clients to assess and manage their risks and maximise the impact of their project and programme delivery. The three newly promoted directors are Alistair McGeorge, Risk Advisory, Louisa Arundale, Consulting, and Graeme Brough in Tax & Legal. This time last year, the firm promoted one new partner, Donna Baker in the Indirect Tax team and Sarah Fish was promoted to director in Tax Advisory. Stephen Hall, senior partner for the North East at Deloitte, said: “I am very proud to be making this announcement after what’s been a very different year for our clients and our people. The firm continues to invest in the capabilities of our people in the regions and these promotions recognise the hard work and dedication of each person. All these promotions are a great addition to the depth of our knowledge and expertise that we can use to support our clients as they seek to capitalise on the opportunities available post pandemic. “I was very pleased Nicola joined us during the last year as a partner and this is testament to the firm’s hard work to further increase the number of female partners in the firm. Across the UK there have been 79 people promoted to partner of which 24 (30%) are women. Our target is for 40% of our partners to be women by 2030 and as a firm we have prioritised the recruitment, development and retention of senior women as part of our gender balance action plan.” Diversity and Inclusion Inclusion remains at the heart of Deloitte’s culture. As part of the firm’s wider Ethnicity Action Plan, Deloitte in the UK has committed to 12% Ethnic Minority and 3% Black partners by 2025, plus targets across other grades to create the future pipeline. Stephen added: “While we’ve got much further to go, we’ve made progress on our inclusion priorities this year, building the foundations to ensure that our firm is reflective of society. In line with our commitment to transparency, we’ll communicate our progress against targets and use the data to identify areas where further action is needed.” Deloitte in the Yorkshire and North East region employs 822 people of which 37 are partners and 74 directors with 257 of its people based in Newcastle.
