Azets Bolsters South Regional R&D Team With Two Strategic Appointments

Azets, the UK’s specialist business advisor to SMEs, has made two strategic appointments with key sector expertise to bolster its expanding research and development (R&D) tax relief offering across Kent and the south.

The two new senior recruits join the firm which this year set ambitious growth targets of doubling R&D revenues by 2028 across the South region, including London, Kent, the South Coast and Home Counties.

Azets has Kent offices in Maidstone, Ashford, Canterbury, Sandwich and Orpington.

Helena Weare, appointed as an R&D Tax Manager in the Solent region, has joined from a tax role at HSBC Innovation Banking and previously had audit roles at KMPG.

She has experience in dedicated funding for innovative businesses across the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa regions (EMEA) and now specialises in R&D tax.

Miran Khan, who has also joined as a R&D Tax Manager in the Hertford office, was previously a senior R&D tax consultant at consulting firm Leyton and an R&D tax supervisor at accountancy firm MHA.

He is a mechanical engineer by training, with experience in the intersection of engineering innovation and tax and accounting backed by his strong technical foundation through a BEng from De Montfort University.

UK top 10 accountancy firm Azets has also made a senior promotion with Emma Hussey, Head of R&D in London, being named a Director. She joined from Cooper Parry earlier this year.

Emma was previously a chemistry and pharmaceutical researcher with experience working with AstraZeneca, Imperial College London and the European Space Agency.

Heather Williams, South regional Head of R&D for Azets, said: “Innovation is the key to future economic prosperity because without ongoing development of products and services there is little or no business growth.

“We are here to support innovative businesses make the most of their great ideas and ensure they are able to benefit from the available tax reliefs dedicated to creative growth, which can be fiendishly difficult to interpret.

“Our ongoing recruitment drive is very much geared towards unearthing talent with technical specialisms as well as tax-trained staff. It is so important that we are able to get under the skin of clients and completely understand their processes and systems.

“The complexity and changes to the R&D relief scheme necessitates our move towards appointing sector experts covering the whole of our region and based in Kent, Guildford, the Solent, London and Hertford.

“We have set a very high growth bar, but our investment in skilled, diligent and hardworking experts makes it a perfectly achievable target as we continue to attract new clients drawn by our professionalism, experience and second-to-none customer service.”

R&D continues to be a major driver of businesses. Latest available figures from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) show that expenditure on R&D performed by UK businesses was £50 billion in 2023, an increase of £1.4 billion since 2022 (2.9%).

London had the largest regional value of business R&D performed in 2023, at £11 billion (22.0%), followed by the East of England at £9.7 billion (19.5%) and the South East at £8.5 billion (16.9%).

The pharmaceuticals product group made the largest contribution of £8.7 billion (17.4% of the total) with scientific research and development the top industry at £12.7 billion (25.3%).

l https://www.azets.com/en-uk

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