Grant Thornton UK expands team with 11 new appointments

Grant Thornton UK expands team with 11 new appointments

Ellichipuram Umesh

Thu, August 13, 2026 at 3:48 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Grant Thornton UK has bolstered its capacity by adding 11 new partners across its advisory and audit practices.

Six of the new partners have joined through the firm's acquisition of Fairgrove.

This group includes Fairgrove co-founders Paddy Woods Ballard, who joins national management, and Patrick Woodrow, who moves into corporate finance advisory.

They are joined by fellow Fairgrove partners Oli Lestner, Adam Lee and Andrew Keller, who will also work in corporate finance advisory, and Andrew Hawkins, who will join national management.

Grant Thornton UK noted that all six Fairgrove partners will be based in London.

The latest round of appointments also features two internal promotions within Grant Thornton's audit practice.

Zeenat Patel becomes a partner in audit in Manchester, while Mark Foster has been promoted to partner in Public Interest Audit in Leeds.

In addition, the firm has made three external partner hires: Lee Betteridge in Forensic and Investigations in London, Darshan Chandarana in AI Consulting in Bristol and Nick Davies in Private Equity in London.

Grant Thornton UK CEO Malcolm Gomersall said: "July was a strong month for our partnership expansion, with 11 new partners joining across our advisory and audit practices.

"The addition of six colleagues from Fairgrove brings specialist, complementary expertise into the firm, alongside the continued progression of our own people into partner roles.

"These appointments add real depth in the areas where client demand is sharpest, and they keep us firmly on track to deliver our commitment of 160 new partners by the end of 2027."

These appointments sit within Grant Thornton UK's two-year partnership expansion programme, launched in late 2025, which is targeting 160 new partners by the close of 2027.

So far this year, the firm has named 104 new partners in total, comprising 30 internal promotions and 74 external hires.

"Grant Thornton UK expands team with 11 new appointments" was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletin, a GlobalData owned brand.