Emma Davies promoted to Partner at Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton has promoted Emma Davies to Partner in its UK wing. Davies was instrumental in the formation of the firm’s Special Projects business, a fast-growing service which supports businesses with interim talent as they scale their finance department.
Last year was a difficult 12 months for Grant Thornton UK. Having ousted previous CEO Sacha Romanovitch in order to preserve their portion of profits at the firm, 2019 saw Grant Thornton’s UK Partner team endure a near-6% drop in distributable profits. Partially, this was due to the number of Partners at the firm growing from 188 to 200 over the last year; however, revenue only increased modestly from £490.8 million to £501.8 million this year.
One area where the firm has been seeing strong growth is its Special Projects business – a highly flexible bespoke service which allows businesses to up-scale or up-skill their finance department by bringing in talent on an interim or project basis during periods of change or high pressure. Counting global businesses such as law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer among its clients, the last 12 months have seen the team’s revenue increase by 165%, while headcount expanded significantly with the hire of more than 30 people working out of offices in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, London and Milton Keynes.
In recognition of her work in creating the firm’s fast-expanding Special Projects team, Emma Davies has been promoted to Partner at Grant Thornton. Based in Yorkshire, Davies works across the firm’s offices in the North and Midlands, and excluding a two-year spell as Financial Controller at General Electric, she has been with Grant Thornton for most of her 20-year career in professional services.
Davies commented on her promotion, “I’m very proud to join the partnership at Grant Thornton, which has been incredibly entrepreneurial in giving me the opportunity to grow the Special Projects team and also to create Select – which is bringing finance professionals who need to work flexibly, for family or other reasons, back into work. In a fast-changing world where businesses have to manage many challenges, ranging from regulatory changes, cyber threats and of course uncertainty over Brexit, our Special Projects offering has come to the fore.”
Alongside the creation of the Special Projects team, Davies was also central to the launch of Grant Thornton Select, an inclusive and flexible working model for experienced accounting professionals. To date she has brought in around 150 finance professionals for the network, in addition to the employed Special Projects team, who work on a project basis for Special Projects clients nationally.
Andy Wood, Partner and Yorkshire practice leader at Grant Thornton in Yorkshire said, “I am proud and thrilled to see Emma become a Partner. She is a true pioneer within our firm having created a new service which, in a short space of time has become highly valued by our clients. Her vision, market knowledge and passionate approach to delivering excellent advice to our clients alongside her outstanding leadership qualities means she is a highly valued member of our team and I look forward to working with her for many years to come.”