EY Scotland announces new head of financial services

EY’s Scotland practice has marked the start of their financial year with three partner promotions and a new Head of Financial Services.

Sue Dawe has been appointed head of EY’s financial services practice in Scotland and the regions including Bristol, Leeds and Manchester, as well as the firm’s Edinburgh office managing partner.

Ms Dawe has more than 25 years of experience within the financial services sector and has been an EY Partner since 2009.

Her previous roles include global co-leader of wealth and asset management (WAM) assurance and head of UK WAM Assurance where she had gathered extensive experience of serving many of EY’s largest clients.

Ms Dawe said: “I’m delighted to be taking on this new leadership role within EY’s financial services practice following years of strong growth and consolidation. This is a time of uncertainty for the UK but at EY we continue to invest in growing our business in Scotland, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester. We have confidence in the future of the UK’s financial services sector and our ability to help clients, while also building on our position as a leading firm in Scotland.”

EY’s Scotland practice has also added three new partners to its leadership, who have more than 45 years’ of experience working for EY combined.

Edinburgh-based Caroline Mercer has been promoted to become an assurance partner in EY’s Financial Services practice.

She will lead EY’s UK Regulated Fund practice working with a variety of clients across the asset management sector, from large global asset managers to UK boutiques and their administrators, Ms Mercer also represents EY on the Investment Association’s working group of accounting firms.

Lesley Stubberfield, also Edinburgh-based, is now an Advisory Partner in the firm’s information technology risk & assurance (ITRA) practice, specialising in data analytics, IT risk management, audit, compliance and program assurance. She leads projects with some of EY’s largest FTSE 350 audit clients.

Glasgow-based Philip Milne is now a Partner in EY’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS). He will lead our Government and Public Sector TAS practice providing support to a broad spectrum of government bodies across central and local government, education, housing and enterprise.

The appointments represent three out of the 62 equity Partners that have been added to EY’s UK business this year. This includes 33 internally promoted Partners and 29 direct entry Partners from EY’s competitors and industry.

Mark Harvey, EY Senior Partner, Scotland, said: “These promotions demonstrate EY’s commitment to Scotland and reflect our strong pipeline of high quality people, whose wealth of experience and talent enables us to respond to the global demands of our clients in a complex environment.

“We have big ambitions for our business in Scotland and our new Partners have an important role to play in helping us achieve them.”

These Partner promotions follow the announcement that one of Scotland’s premier dealmakers, Ally Scott, will join EY’s Scotland practice in September as partner and head of TAS.

This brings the total number of EY Partners dedicated to the Scotland market to 37.

EY is the largest accountancy firm in Scotland by headcount, employing around 1000 people, across offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.