Grant Thornton's Scottish forensic team adds new Directors
Grant Thornton has strengthened its forensic and restructuring team in Scotland with the promotion of two new Directors. Claire Probert and Julie Tait take up the roles amid heightened demand for the practice.
With a growing numbers of firms issuing profit warnings and heading toward administration procedures in the UK, the importance of forensic accountancy cannot be understated. Forensic accountants need to not only be skilled at identifying any discrepancies in financial data collected from both private and public institutions, but must also be effective communicators as well – helping to identify the problem factors which cause the downfall of firms, and helping to prevent them from happening elsewhere as a result.
In anticipation of a heightened level of forensics work in 2020 Grant Thornton has announced a raft of senior promotions and new hires in its Scottish restructuring and forensic investigations teams, taking the headcount to 20 specialists across its Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen offices. The most senior of these sees Claire Probert promoted to Director within the forensic investigation team.
Having trained with KPMG, she spent almost 15 years at the Big Four firm, where she was latterly a Senior Manager in forensics. She joined Grant Thornton in 2015, and has significant expert witness experience, having advised a number of clients across a wide range of disputes in recent years. She has also amassed significant experience undertaking fraud investigations, while clients are increasingly enlisting her counsel on risk management strategies for cybersecurity threats.
In the restructuring team, Julie Tait has also been promoted to Director, having been at the firm since 2018. With 20 years of corporate and personal insolvency experience, Tait has worked with a number of clients, helping to safeguard hundreds of jobs in the past 12 months. The most high-profile of these was leading a process to secure the future of one of the country’s largest local newspaper groups, Scottish Provincial Press (SPP). Completed just before Christmas last year, the deal saved 135 jobs and ensured the survival of 18 local newspapers, including the Inverness Courier.
Stuart Preston, Partner and Head of Grant Thornton’s restructuring and forensic team in Scotland, said of the news, “Clients continue to call on our expertise in restructuring and we’re seeing increased demand driven by the challenging macroeconomic conditions. We’ve also scaled our offering in cybersecurity as clients become more aware of the threat to business continuity posed by increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals, preying on the growing reliance on digital technology.”
Probert and Tait’s promotions accompanied several other appointments in the team. Julie Dallas, who has been with Grant Thornton since summer 2018, has been promoted to Manager within the team, while Grant Thornton has also welcomed Andrew Turton, who joins as an assistant manager from PwC, where he spent more than three years.