PwC Midlands invests in record partner promotions 

PwC has announced a record round of partner promotions, with eight Midlands directors admitted into the partnership across its deals, audit, tax, risk and tech practices. 

The eight Midlands partners join a total of 77 across PwC UK, in addition to 22 partners promoted in January 2022, making 99 new partner promotions in total this year for the firm.

Matt Hammond, PwC’s Midlands Leader and Birmingham Senior Partner, said: 

“It’s fantastic to announce a record investment of new partners into our Midlands business. Each new partner brings with them a diverse wealth of experience to support both clients and communities in the region. PwC is a people business first and foremost, and the firm is committed to developing and supporting talent so we can help both our clients, and our communities tackle global challenges and the most complex problems.  Congratulations to each of our new Partners and to 400 of our team across the Midlands who are celebrating their much deserved promotions also.” 

The new Partners are part of the 400 promotions made across the Midlands region, including seven directors, 33 senior managers and 57 managers, that was announced recently. 

The seven newly promoted directors across PwC’s Midlands offices in Birmingham, Milton Keynes and the East Midlands are Mark Billingham, Christopher Fletcher, Manjot Dhami, Jessica Yin-Moore, Suzanne Pritchard, Tony Rekhi and Jacky Jain.  

Partner admissions in the Midlands are:

• Dan Brew, Audit 
• Sandeep Chauhan, Digital Audit 
• Steve Couchman, Tax
• Emma Cray, Deals
• Gethin Evans, Audit 
• Alex Hudson, Tax
• Richard Kay, Audit 
• Neal Smith, Risk

Dan Brew, audit partner, started his career with PwC straight from school, forgoing a traditional university education. He has 21 years’ experience and works extensively across the large international corporate sector, providing statutory audit and non-financial assurance services to multinational groups. 

Sandeep Chauhan, digital audit partner, joined the firm in 2005 and leads the digital audit practice in the Midlands, a role he took on in 2019 having been based in London most of his career. Sandeep specialises in providing assurance over systems audit clients use and to apply innovative techniques to deliver technology enabled audits. His focus is on financial services and large audit clients. 

Midlands native, Steve Couchman, joined the firm in 2001 and is now a partner in tax. Steve leads the indirect tax compliance services globally and supports clients in providing outsourced compliance services alongside PwC’s global technology. Born in Walsall, Steve is committed to growing the business and providing more opportunities for others in and around the Midlands, working with some of the world’s largest companies. 

Emma Cray, Deals Partner, joined the firm in 2003 as an associate straight from college.  Born and bred in the Midlands, she is responsible for the Legal Entity Rationalisation proposition, and is an insolvency practitioner with a vast amount of experience in members’ voluntary liquidations.  Emma works with clients of all shapes and sizes across a wide range of sectors, providing specialist elimination advice and  PMO services to clients who are winding down non value add businesses or simplifying legal entity structures.

Gethin Evans, audit partner, joined the firm as a graduate in 2007, working out of Milton Keynes. Throughout this career, he has worked on some of the firm’s largest global clients and is the Chairperson for the firm’s Top 25 Global Banking Audits Working Group.

Alex Hudson is a tax partner across inbound and listed groups. Since joining the firm in 2002, she has worked with businesses to help them navigate the increasingly complex world of tax. She is responsible for East Midlands and Milton Keynes from a market and team leadership perspective. 

Richard Kay joined the firm in 2003 and is an audit partner, specialising in listed and multinational audits. Alongside working with many Midlands based companies across the Aerospace & Defence sector, Richard brings 18 years’ experience of working with a broad range of clients in this sector supporting them through transactions, organisational and regulatory change.

Neal Smith, risk partner joined the firm in 2003 specialising in transformation. Neal will establish the firm’s new Enterprise Business Applications team which will scale PwC’s offering to help mid-market clients to deliver cloud-enabled business transformation. 

This year, across the firm 39% of the newly promoted partners are women and 14% are black, asian or minority ethnic. In addition, 46% of our new directors are female and 23% are black, asian or minority ethnic, showing a strong pipeline in senior roles. This reflects the firm’s commitment to bringing a more diverse group of people into leadership roles across the UK – a central part of our diversity and inclusion action plan and a key element in reducing our pay gaps.