Caroline Harwood and Raoul Rambaut named partners at BDO

BDO has appointed two new partners in its London team. Caroline Harwood and Raoul Rambau both bring Big Four experience to the office, as the firm looks to keep up its recent pressure on the UK’s largest audit and advisory firms.

Since January 2021, BDO has appointed four new partners and promoted 20 from within its business. The latest such move has seen Caroline Harwood and Raoul Rambau enter the partnership, and the continued growth is something Managing Partner Paul Eagland believes will be key to helping clients with their recovery from the pandemic recession of the last year.

“Despite the impacts of the pandemic, we are still seeing robust growth and appetite for our skills and knowledge,” explained Eagland. “Since the start of this year we have grown our expertise thanks to the appointments and promotions of a number of new partners, making us better equipped to help our clients navigate this period of uncertainty.”

Based in London, Harwood joins the company as a Partner in the employment tax team. Alongside advising the firm’s clients, she will support the further growth of the employment tax team and help shape the team’s vision for the future.

Harwood brings more than 30 years of experience in the professional services industry, having most recently been Head of Share Plans and Reward with the UK wing of Crowe. She previously spent three years as Head of Incentives with Burges Salmon, before which she enjoyed extended spells with Grant Thornton, the tax practices of KPMG and PwC, and former Big Five member Arthur Andersen.

Rambaut meanwhile joins BDO’s risk advisory team, and will also be based in London. In his new position, he will work to apply his expertise across the advisory space in areas including internal audit, Sarbanes Oxley assurance, technology risk, data privacy and third party assurance.

As a former PwC audit expert, Rambaut’s work will span a range of sectors including, real estate and construction, consumer markets, manufacturing and technology and media. He will also help to grow the firm’s risk advisory team further and have a focus on advising larger, listed corporates with complex structures and processes.

Managing Partner Eagland added, “I am pleased to be welcoming Caroline and Raoul to the firm today. Both new partners bring a wealth of experience that will be a huge asset to BDO’s tax and risk advisory teams and support the continued growth of these areas of the business.”

The duo further add to the Big Four experience of BDO’s UK team. The firm has picked up a string of contract wins from KPMG, PwC, EY and Deloitte in recent months, following regulatory shifts in the UK auditing market. As a result, this has also seen a number of professionals move from those firms to BDO.