Grant Thornton’s UK Employer Solutions Team poaches KPMG Share Plan Specialist

Business and financial advisers, Grant Thornton, continue to grow their employer solutions team with the appointment of share plans specialists Caroline Harwood and Martin Brown.

Formerly head of KPMG South’s Performance & Reward practice, Caroline joins Grant Thornton as a Share Plans Client Service Director at a time when the firm is experiencing strong growth in its Employer Solutions service line, including recent senior level appointments in the Expatriate Tax team.

In her previous role Caroline built and developed a thriving share plans practice in the South of England, providing advice across a broad spectrum including remuneration committee advice, implementation of share plans including on flotation, MBOs, transactions and start-ups, and capital structuring for the management of companies at all stages of the corporate life cycle.

Clive Fathers, leader of Grant Thornton’s National Employer Solutions team, says, “In London alone, Grant Thornton’s Employer Solutions team has experienced growth in excess of 25% year-on-year for the past six years and contributes significantly to the firm’s fee earnings. Our share plans market offering is a key focus for us and recently director Justin Rix has been tasked with developing this element of the Employer Solutions offering. Having Caroline on board to work alongside Justin in a national role with the excellent team already in place will enable us to focus and develop our share plans market offering, providing targeted commercial advice to our clients.”

Caroline Harwood comments, “I’m very excited about working with Justin and Clive to grow Grant Thornton’s share plans offering. As part of the increased focus on good corporate governance, many companies are looking for an alternative service provider in this area and at Grant Thornton, rather than provide a ‘one size fits all product’, our approach will consider a client’s business needs and work with them to develop appropriate solutions which add value.”

Martin Brown is another addition to the team, joining Grant Thornton as a share plans manager. Having previously worked with both KPMG and Deloitte, Martin has an enormous amount of expertise in the areas of share plans and employee benefit trusts and will be a great asset to the team.

Fathers: “The addition of Martin and Caroline will open more doors for the team and demonstrate Grant Thornton’s commitment to providing expertise in every area of employer solutions.”