EY appoints new Office Managing Partner for Manchester and Markets Leader for the North

EY has announced the appointment of Stephen Church as the new Office Managing Partner for Manchester and Markets Leader for the North of England.
Stephen is taking over from Bob Ward who has been in role for nearly four years and will be relocating back to London to focus on Turnaround and Restructuring client work as a Strategy and Transactions Partner.

A Partner in the firm’s Consulting business, Stephen will now lead EY’s multi-disciplinary team in the North of England, comprising of tax, consulting, assurance, people advisory services and strategy and transaction professionals in providing services to both the public and private sectors. EY works with large corporates to entrepreneurial businesses, across all sectors in the region.
Stephen joined EY in Manchester as a Partner in 2009 and has over 25 years’ consulting experience, supporting clients in understanding the impacts of regulatory change, capital programme delivery, operating model change and delivering growth through the adoption of innovative and disruptive technologies.
He has led business transformation programmes across Europe and the Americas for several clients in the consumer products, life sciences, government and energy sectors. More recently, he has worked with clients in the UK transport sector where he has led and delivered a number of transformation programmes. He also represents EY in its long-term involvement with the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

Commenting on his new roles, Stephen said: “I’m really pleased to be taking on the role as Office Managing Partner for EY’s Manchester office and Markets Leader for the North. I’d like to thank Bob for his fantastic work in successfully growing the business over the last four years – he’s done a fantastic job and I have big shoes to fill.
“I intend to build on this success and our commitment to Manchester, and the whole of the North region. We will continue to invest in local talent as well as recruit highly skilled people to ensure that we can meet our clients’ growing needs with people based in the North who know the market. We are committed to growing our North business and will continue to make the necessary investments to respond to market demand.”Bob Ward added: “I have been the Manchester Office Managing Partner and North Markets Leader for nearly four years, it’s been a great chapter of my career that I’ve really enjoyed.

“The time is right for me to focus on my Turnaround and Restructuring client work as part of the Strategy and Transactions team in London.
“I am delighted that my colleague and friend, Stephen, will take over both roles. I know that he will be a strong leader who will focus on growing the Manchester office and the business as a whole across the North.”