Our people
Our strength is our people. They’re what sets Cowgills apart.
Cowgills has over 200 talented, committed and engaged employees, totally focussed on delivering financial guidance and growth strategies to our clients.
We are passionate about what we do. The senior management team at Cowgills are central to the long term relationships we have with our clients, they have extensive contacts in the region which our clients benefit from.
Each client has their own relationship partner, who’s supported by the other members of our full service team; here you can meet a few of our senior team.
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Firm Wide
Paul Stringer
Managing Partner
Rob Lord
Partner, Business Development & Deal Origination
Lynne Martland
HR Manager
Claire Hextall
Marketing Director
Mike Murphy
Partner, Compliance
Stephen Tattersall
Head of Cowgills Tech
Lisa Kershaw
Head of People
Audit & Advisory
Stuart Stead
Partner and Head of Property & Construction
Paul Stansfield
Partner
Helen Mills
Partner, Audit & Advisory
Alex Hesketh
Partner and Head of International
Caroline Snape
Partner, Head of Audit
Nilesh Modhvadia
Partner
Business Funding
David Rainford
Director
Ben Day
Director
Business Recovery
Jason Elliott
Partner
John Dean
Partner, Business Recovery
Craig Johns
Partner
Ben Cowgill
Partner
Jimmy Fish
Partner
Jordan Heys
Director
Danny Kilroe
Business Development Manager
Deal Advisory
Ian Johnson
Partner
Sam Davies
Partner
Rob Lord
Partner, Business Development & Deal Origination
David Furlong
Partner, Debt Advisory
Jane Rash
Partner
Andrew Nelson
Partner, Transaction Services
Sorina Gheorghita
Associate Director, Transaction Services
James Marshall
Deal Origination Director
Julie Brown
Head of Research
Ben Barlow
Director
James Kennedy
Partner
Tax
Lisa Wilson
Partner
Paul Hammond
Partner, Head of Indirect Tax
Andy Ball
Partner
James Greenhalgh
Director
Georges Daubney
Partner
Michelle Wilson
Tax Director
Paul Stringer
Managing Partner
Paul works with growing and entrepreneurial clients. He is an advocate of establishing solid relationships with clients to take them on their journey as a business - and there have certainly been some journeys during his many years at Cowgills. He recognises opportunities getting great results for his clients. His particular specialism is developing growth strategies for businesses.
Areas of expertise
Funding, acquisitions and business sales
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: paul.stringer@cowgills.co.uk
Rob Lord
Partner, Business Development & Deal Origination
Rob heads up all business development/deal origination for the firm. With a strong network of contacts in the legal and private equity sectors, he identifies and works closely with shareholders of growing businesses. As a central point of contact, he helps to deliver our ‘joined up’ approach, ensuring clients are connected with the relevant Cowgills team members. As members of the Morison Global International Network, Rob can also help businesses who are looking to expand overseas and connect them with the relevant firms across the world.
Areas of expertise
Relationship building, deal origination, account management and identifying potential in strong/growing businesses, where we can work closely with them on their growth journey
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: rob.lord@cowgills.co.uk
Lynne Martland
HR Manager
Working alongside our Head of People, Lynne is instrumental to the businesses. Her focus is on ‘our people’, she is responsible for delivering excellence, colleague joining process and internal communication.
Areas of expertise
People management, values and internal communication
Tel: 01204 414 243
Claire Hextall
Marketing Director
Claire heads our marketing and PR function and is the creative one in our technical team! Claire has worked in senior positions across a number of sectors including law firms and national property companies. She leads a marketing team of five who work hard coordinating our marketing strategy, from arranging our very popular events, to developing our marketing campaigns.
Areas of expertise
Marketing, Events, PR
Tel: 01204 414 243
Mike Murphy
Partner, Compliance
Mike leads on all compliance matters for the firm. He’s responsible for practice assurance and quality control for Cowgills too. Mike is one of our longest serving employees.
Areas of expertise
Compliance & quality control
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: mike.murphy@cowgills.co.uk
Stephen Tattersall
Head of Cowgills Tech
Stephen heads our Cowgills Tech division. With many years expertise in leading key IT projects and heading our own internal IT team, he established Cowgills Tech to further support other businesses wanting to improve their IT systems. Stephen can ensure that they find the right solution to help businesses work smarter.
Areas of expertise
IT setup, systems and efficient working
Tel: 01204 414 243
Lisa Kershaw
Head of People
As our head of people Lisa keeps our super accountants in check. She provides advice, support, and guidance with an emphasis on colleague communication and inclusion, health, and wellbeing. Qualified as a mental health first aider, Lisa ensures that our team are mentally healthy and happy at work. As our team continues to grow, she is also involved in ensuring that as an employer we are continually delivering excellence and that our staff retention remains high, she also leads our highly successful graduate and apprenticeship scheme.
Areas of expertise
People management, values, internal communication
Tel: 01204 414 243 or 07794 455 814
Email: lisa.kershaw@cowgills.co.uk
Stuart Stead
Partner and Head of Property & Construction
Stuart works closely with entrepreneurial clients in the property and construction sector throughout the North West. As one of the region’s only focused property and construction divisions, Stuart and his team of experts use their specialist knowledge to deliver sector specific advice with a focus on the following:-
Raising finance
Tax minimisation
Value protection
Compliance services
Areas of expertise
Strategic advice, funding, structuring, audit and accountancy, Property & Construction
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: stuart.stead@cowgills.co.uk
Paul Stansfield
Partner
Paul has been here for so many years, we've lost count! Before stepping down as managing partner he led the firm's tremendous growth and had overall responsibility for developing our compliance activity and service levels. He continues to focus on clients and works with a number of owner managed and family businesses, advising them on their growth strategies.
Areas of expertise
Growing & Entrepreneurial businesses, owner managed businesses & growth strategies.
Tel: 01204 414 243
Helen Mills
Partner, Audit & Advisory
Helen is a Partner in our Audit and Advisory Department. She has significant experience supporting a breadth of entrepreneurial and owner managed clients covering a wide range of industries including leisure, distribution, manufacturing and retail.
Areas of expertise
Audit, owner managed and entrepreneurial businesses, groups
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: Helen.mills@cowgills.co.uk
Alex Hesketh
Partner and Head of International
Alex joined Cowgills on our highly successful graduate scheme, and has worked his way up the ranks to Partner. With a background in Audit and Corporate compliance he has a growing list of clients across the North West. He heads up our International team working with clients who are focused overseas, from taking their first steps into exporting, to setting up operations across multiple countries.
Areas of expertise
International audits
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: alex.hesketh@cowgills.co.uk
Caroline Snape
Partner, Head of Audit
Caroline has a wealth of experience in auditing and company compliance, she helps companies fulfil their obligations to international and government compliance.
Areas of expertise
Audit, Growth and Entrepreneurial businesses, owner managed businesses
Tel: 01204 414 243
Nilesh Modhvadia
Partner
Nilesh is a Partner in our Audit and Assurance team, working with owner managed and entrepreneurial businesses. He’s a sounding board for many of our clients, advising them on the best course of action. Nilesh is also a key part of our Property and Construction team and has a growing portfolio of property and construction clients.
Areas of expertise
Property & Construction, entrepreneurial and owner managed businesses and complex group structures
Tel: 01204 414 243
David Rainford
Director
David is our property finance specialist. He works with property developers and investors assisting them to source and structure debt for residential and commercial schemes, property acquisitions and refinancing. He ensures deals get across the line by presenting proposals to funders and negotiating terms, getting stuck in to understand the deal offering a pragmatic and flexible approach to funding.
Areas of Expertise
Property funding
Tel: 01204 414 243
Ben Day
Director
Ben is our funding guru, offering assistance with sourcing the right funding solution from his extensive network of providers. He has over a decade of experience in all aspects of business funding, most recently specialising in the FinTech Sector.
Areas of expertise
Growth funding, FinTech
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: benjamin.day@cowgills.co.uk
Jason Elliott
Partner
As a licensed Insolvency Practitioner and Partner at Cowgills, Jason offers expert knowledge and help to businesses and individuals who are experiencing financial difficulty. With over two decades of experience, Jason leads a growing team offering advice on business turnaround, formal insolvency procedures, corporate and personal insolvency procedures.
Areas of expertise
Business turnaround and formal insolvency processes
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: jason.elliott@cowgills.co.uk
John Dean
Partner, Business Recovery
John joined as a partner in our Business Recovery service sector in 2021. He currently heads up our Liverpool office.
Tel: 0151 236 9999
Email: John.Dean@cowgills.co.uk
Craig Johns
Partner
Craig is a Partner in our Business Recovery team specialising in providing assistance to financially distressed businesses across a number of sectors including retail and care homes, as well as providing assistance to individuals.
Areas of expertise
Business turnaround and formal insolvency processes
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: craig.johns@cowgills.co.uk
Ben Cowgill
Partner
Ben is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner who specialises in business turnaround and business recovery along with dealing with formal insolvency.
Areas of expertise
Working with lenders, investors, accountants and directors
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: ben.cowgill@cowgills.co.uk
Jimmy Fish
Partner
Jimmy is one of our Partners in our Business Recovery team. With over two decades of experience he is able to provide assistance to financially distressed businesses across the North West, as well as providing assistance to individuals.
Areas of expertise
Business turnaround, insolvency procedures
Tel: 07717 001087
Email: jimmy.fish@cowgills.co.uk
Jordan Heys
Director
Jordan has worked in the Business Recovery and Insolvency sector for almost two decades and has gained vast experience in all aspects of both Personal and Corporate matters in that time. His focus is always to look at continuation over cessation and works with Directors to find solutions to financial problems. Jordan also heads up Cowgills Creditor Protection, our Creditor Services offering.
Areas of expertise
Working with Accountants and their clients
Tel: 07983631992
Email: Jordan.heys@cowgills.co.uk
Danny Kilroe
Business Development Manager
Danny is business development manager in our business recovery team. He has extensive knowledge of the insolvency process and a fantastic network, ensuring the best outcome for businesses in need.
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: daniel.kilroe@cowgills.co.uk
Ian Johnson
Partner
Ian joined Cowgills back in 1993. With many years experience he is our Head of Corporate Finance. He works closely with a variety of businesses across numerous sectors. He has extensive experience in all aspects of Corporate Finance work, focusing on a business’ current situation, identifying and executing them in line with business objectives.
Areas of expertise
M&A, strategic planning and business reconstructions
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: ian.johnson@cowgills.co.uk
Sam Davies
Partner
Sam is a Director within our Corporate Finance team. An award winning advisor, he has a wealth of knowledge in the selling of a business as both an advisor and an investor. Specialising specifically in technology, media, telecoms and consumer sectors.
Areas of expertise
Trade sales, acquisitions and debt funding
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: sam.davies@cowgills.co.uk
Rob Lord
Partner, Business Development & Deal Origination
Rob heads up all business development/deal origination for the firm. With a strong network of contacts in the legal and private equity sectors, he identifies and works closely with shareholders of growing businesses. As a central point of contact, he helps to deliver our ‘joined up’ approach, ensuring clients are connected with the relevant Cowgills team members. As members of the Morison Global International Network, Rob can also help businesses who are looking to expand overseas and connect them with the relevant firms across the world.
Areas of expertise
Relationship building, deal origination, account management and identifying potential in strong/growing businesses, where we can work closely with them on their growth journey
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: rob.lord@cowgills.co.uk
David Furlong
Partner, Debt Advisory
Dave joins us as a Partner following a 21 year financial services career in senior roles, primarily as a banker (Head of Leverage Finance North West at HSBC and Director at Lloyds Banking Group), debt fund manager (Partner at Infinity Debt Capital Management), equity investor (NPIF/Maven Capital Partners) and fundraising consultant. Dave will be seeking to build on Ben Day’s work in the ABL space and David Rainford’s work in the Property Finance market in developing our debt advisory and early stage fundraising offering, seeking to take advantage of the strong relationships we enjoy with our clients and the wider market. We see a huge opportunity to take a significant share of what is an attractive market across the North.
Areas of expertise
Debt funding, fundraising
Tel: 0161 669 4821
Jane Rash
Partner
Jane has been working in our Corporate Finance team for many years and works closely with our Lead Advisory team. She uses her vast experience to really bring value to our clients. In our exclusive shareholder review workshops, she develops financial modelling and reporting systems to ensure clients get the best solution to meet their plan for both their personal and corporate objectives.
Areas of expertise
Strategic support , financial forecasting and MI pack development
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: jane.rash@cowgills.co.uk
Andrew Nelson
Partner, Transaction Services
Andrew is a partner who leads our due diligence team and has over 20 years experience in advising companies on completing successful transactions. After 17 years of Big Four experience, Andrew advises on all aspects of due diligence from buy side work to sell side and refinancing assistance with experience across all types of sector. With an approach that focuses on deal value and delivering what you require from a due diligence process, Andrew brings his extensive experience to deliver a successful outcome for your business.
Areas of expertise
Due diligence
Tel: 0161 669 4820
Sorina Gheorghita
Associate Director, Transaction Services
Sorina joined our Transaction Services team as an Associate Director in 2022, helping to build out and lead this newly established team within our Corporate Finance arm.
Tel: 07841 468 695
James Marshall
Deal Origination Director
James joined Cowgills in 2022 as deal origination director, to support both the company’s rapidly growing corporate finance team and the wider group.
James is based out of our Manchester office in Spinningfields. He works closely with the corporate finance team and under deal origination partner, Rob Lord.
Tel: 07711 595 594
Julie Brown
Head of Research
Julie heads our corporate finance research team. She works closely with business shareholders who are looking to grow or sell their business. One of her many superpowers is her sector specific knowledge, this ensures a deal meets the objectives of all shareholders.
Areas of expertise
M&A activity, and sector specific knowledge
Tel: 01204 414 243 or 07970 734 189
Email: julie.brown@cowgills.co.uk
Ben Barlow
Director
Ben is a Director in our Corporate Finance team with considerable transaction experience including business sales, acquisitions and private equity investments. He works with a variety of businesses across numerous sectors and works closely with shareholders to execute a deal in line with their objectives.
Areas of expertise
Business transactions, MBOs and due diligence
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: ben.barlow@cowgills.co.uk
James Kennedy
Partner
James is Partner in our Corporate Finance team. He has considerable transaction experience whether that be through acquisitions, selling a business or simply advising shareholders. He works with a variety of businesses across the region.
Areas of expertise
Transactions, due diligence and MBOs
Tel: 0161 827 1200
Email: james.kennedy@cowgills.co.uk
Lisa Wilson
Partner
Lisa is a Partner and Head of Tax and has been instrumental in growing the Cowgills tax team into one of the most specialised in the North West. As a leading tax advisor herself, she helps entrepreneurs and owner managed businesses on all the strategic aspects of their business, and can be often seen as an expert on the speaking network.
Areas of expertise
Tax strategy, entrepreneurial and owner managed businesses
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: lisa.wilson@cowgills.co.uk
Paul Hammond
Partner, Head of Indirect Tax
Paul is a Partner and Head of Indirect Tax who has supported a wide variety of businesses since moving into the profession in 2000. Paul has advised businesses from entrepreneurial and owner managed businesses to large international groups, and from charities to public bodies to listed businesses. Paul has extensive experience across a wide range of industries, helping businesses to structure, optimise and efficiently manage their VAT affairs. He also has dealt with disputes regarding Climate Change Levy, Aggregates Levy, Landfill Tax as well as customs duties. Paul has represented trade organizations in negotiations with HMRC at the highest level, represented the profession in working groups with HMRC (most recently as part of the Brexit working group), and is former Chair of the Manchester branch of the Chartered Institute of Tax.
Areas of expertise
Indirect tax structuring, optimisation and data management
Tel: 07899681209
Email: paul.hammond@cowgills.co.uk
Andy Ball
Partner
Andy is one of our most senior tax experts and manages a portfolio of some of our key clients. He’s also our go to guy for expert advice on owner managed businesses and the tax issues affecting them.
Areas of expertise
Tax planning and owner managed businesses
Tel: 01204 414 243
Email: andy.ball@cowgills.co.uk
James Greenhalgh
Director
James is one of our in house tax specialists and deals with a range of tax related issues for owner managed businesses. Over the years he’s developed a deep understanding of the property and construction sector, advising many of the North West's leading property and construction firms. He’s also an R&D expert and heads up the firm’s specialist R&D Advisory team.
Areas of expertise
Tax planning, capital allowances, R&D tax credits and Property & Construction
Tel: 01204 414 243
Georges Daubney
Partner
Georges is one of the senior members of our tax team, he has a broad range of experience in owner managed business tax advisory and transaction services. Georges provides business advisory and transaction support services to growth businesses working closely with our corporate finance team.
Areas of expertise
Transactions, tax planning and efficiency.
Tel: 01204 414 243
Michelle Wilson
Tax Director
Michelle is our IHT and trust specialist, providing inheritance tax planning for clients both in the UK and Overseas. She provides specialist tax advice in relation to the creation, administration and cessation of Trusts within IHT planning and lifetime, and has specialist knowledge in the non-dom space. Michelle also provides general personal tax advisory services and acts as personal trustee for a number of Charities.
Areas of expertise
IHT, Trusts, Domicile & Residence, Tax planning
Tel: 01204 414 243
A Cowgills employee stands out when they embrace our culture.
We're very much work hard, play hard, and that's always been the case at Cowgills.
Lisa Kershaw
Head of People
Join our talented team and become a Cowgills' star of the future.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a part of our successful team, then take a look at our current vacancies.
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