EY appoints nine Partners and Associate Partners in the North West

EY has appointed one equity Partner and eight Associate Partners in the North West from within EY, reinforcing the firm’s continued investment in its regional business and commitment to nurturing homegrown talent.

Julia Lewis is a Partner in the firm’s Consulting team in Manchester. She focuses on delivering large change programmes including Finance Transformation. Julia joined EY in 2019 and has 20 years of experience in global business services, including design, implementation and operation. Prior to working for EY, Julia held roles at Xerox, Accenture, PwC, Tetra Pak, Premier Foods, SPX Corporation, Mouchel and Kier Group.

In addition to the new equity Partner appointment, Nicola Bamford, Jon Spooner, Ben Robinson, Stephen Woodhouse, Colette Withey, Terry Seagreaves, Ehsan Ashraf and Mike Harvey have all been promoted to Associate Partner.

Nicola Bamford works in Consulting, leading EY’s Local Public Services team in the North and specialising in the delivery of large-scale transformation programmes. She joined EY ten years ago and before this worked within local government for eight years.

Jon Spooner and Ben Robinson first joined EY as directors through the AgilityWorks acquisition in 2019. Jon’s background is in supply chain, manufacturing and asset management. He is a SAP Architect who specialises in SAP led technology transformation. Ben’s focus is leading clients through technology transformation programmes with a specific focus on the consumer products sector. Their promotions to Associate Partner reflect EY’s investment in the further growth and development of its Technology Consulting business.

Stephen Woodhouse is a mid-market private equity tax specialist, advising private equity houses and corporate clients on all aspects of acquisitions, disposals, IPOs and refinancing. Stephen joined EY in 2004 before moving to PwC for nine years, then returning to EY in 2018.

Colette Withey also works in Tax, specifically within EY Law’s legal advisory practice. She joined EY in 2017 and prior to this was a real estate partner at Addleshaw Goddard, where she spent 15 years in real estate advising on property investment, development and management. Her role at EY, leading the UK Commercial and Digital Law team, includes advising on a range of commercial and regulatory matters.

Terry Seagreaves is an Associate Partner within Forensic and Integrity Services.  He joined EY in 2003 and has over 15 years’ experience supporting clients to investigate allegations of misconduct and advises clients on the design and implementation of business conduct and frameworks.

Ehsan Ashraf is an Associate Partner with over 11 years of experience supporting clients with their strategy and growth agenda. Ehsan re-joined EY in 2018 after two years in industry and is the Consumer Products and Retail Sector leader for the North within EY’s Markets and Business Development team.

Mike Harvey is an Audit Associate Partner who joined EY in 2016, bringing with him over 20 years’ experience across accounting and professional services and expertise across UK accounting standards as well as international auditing standards.

Stephen Church, EY’s North Markets Leader and Office Managing Partner for Manchester, said: “Our continued significant investment in senior talent reflects not only EY’s ambition in the North West but also our confidence in the long-term outlook for the regional economy.

“Congratulations to Julia and to our eight new Associate Partners who have all worked exceptionally hard to achieve this career milestone. Their expertise and leadership will strengthen our footprint in the region and entry into the partnership recognises their outstanding contributions.”

Nationally, EY is strengthening its UK Partnership with 103 new equity Partners – an increase of almost 60% compared to last year. This includes 65 Partner promotions, which is the firm’s largest intake of home-grown talent in the last ten years, along with 38 external hires, taking EY’s overall number of Partners in the UK to 781. Of the new appointments, 32% are women and 18% are from ethnic minority backgrounds, including one Black Partner.