BDO names new financial services partner: Duncan Chandler
Professional services firm BDO has appointed Duncan Chandler to its national mergers and acquisitions team. Chandler brings more than 20 years of experience to the firm.
Paul Eagland, Managing Partner at BDO, commented, “Duncan will be a great asset to our M&A team. As our clients come to us with increasingly complex challenges and requirements, it is important to continue to make appointments like these that really strengthen the expertise of the firm.”
With businesses navigating a period of uncertainty as a result of the pandemic, there is still a strong appetite for M&A activity in the UK at present. This is driving demand for BDO’s M&A team, but Chandler’s skills and knowledge will boost the firm’s ability to help support such projects.
Arriving as the Head of Financial Services in BDO’s M&A team, Chandler will now cover all areas of financial services with a core focus on lending, specialty finance, wealth management and capital markets. The move will see him put two decades of experience within the financial services sector to work, with a speciality in dealing with mid-market firms.
He joins from advisory firm, Cavendish Corporate Finance, where he was Partner and Head of Financial Services. Prior to that, Chandler spent spells with a number of professional services firms, including Arthur Andersen and Deloitte – where he was Director in its Financial Institutions Group
Commenting on his appointment, Chandler said, “M&A activity remains buoyant since the upturn after the initial difficulties caused by Covid. There continues to be strong appetite for investment and growth in the financial services sector and a palpable sense of optimism in the market. With this in mind, I’m hugely looking forward to joining the team at BDO and working closely with the firm’s ambitious and entrepreneurially-spirited clients.”
Since January, BDO has appointed eight external and 20 internal individuals as partner. Recently, this saw Caroline Harwood arrive in the employment tax team, and alongside advising the firm’s clients, she will now support the further growth of the employment tax team and help shape the team’s vision for the future.
