North West Office

James Dow

Owner / Co-Founder

A former partner at KPMG, James co-founded Dow Schofield Watts in 2002. It is now one of the UK’s leading business advisory firms, with over 80 professionals in seven locations, and operates a unique licensing model enabling professionals to build their own business under its brand. In December 2021 James also led the successful IPO … Continued

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Jon Schofield

Owner / Co-Founder

Jon co-founded Dow Schofield Watts Corporate Finance in 2002. For over three decades Jon has provided specialist corporate finance and strategic advice to growing businesses across a range of sectors. He has advised entrepreneurs, private and public organisations on an array of transactions including significant fundraisings, disposals, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. In addition, he … Continued

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Mark Watts

Owner / Co-Founder

Following graduation from Birmingham University, Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG. Mark has over 20 years of corporate finance experience gained at Hill Samuel Bank, NatWest Markets, Old Mutual Securities where he lead and completed transactions in both the public and private markets. Mark is a founding Partner of Dow Schofield Watts. Disposals … Continued

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Philip Price

Philip joined Dow Schofield Watts as a Partner in June 2003. Previously, he had spent seven years in KPMG’s Corporate Finance team in Liverpool and Manchester advising across a wide variety of transactions and sectors. Philip joined KPMG in Liverpool in 1993 from Liverpool John Moores University; he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1996 … Continued

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Andy Dodd

Andy joined Dow Schofield Watts as a Partner in May 2003. Previously, he had spent five years in KPMG’s Corporate Finance team in Manchester advising across a wide variety of transactions and sectors. Following graduation from Durham University and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Andy joined KPMG Corporate Finance in 1998. In addition … Continued

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Craig Richardson

Craig joined Dow Schofield Watts as a Partner in 2006. Prior to this he spent 14 years at KPMG, undertaking corporate finance and due diligence assignments in the UK and overseas after qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1992. In the inaugural North West Insider awards, Craig was voted Corporate Finance Advisor of the Year … Continued

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Gregg Pendlington

Gregg joined Dow Schofield Watts in 2013 and is a Chartered Accountant with a degree in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Sheffield. Prior to Dow Schofield Watts Gregg was a Partner in the Manchester Corporate Finance department of a top fifteen firm of Accountants. Gregg has a broad level of corporate finance … Continued

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Tony Meakin

Following a degree MEng in Engineering, Economics and Management at Hertford College, Oxford, Tony then qualified as a Chartered Accountant under ICAS in 2006 with first time passes. Prior to joining Dow Schofield Watts in 2007, Tony spent 4 years at Ernst & Young in both Liverpool and Manchester, working both in audit and as … Continued

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Gerard Lucas

Gerard joined Dow Schofield Watts as a Director in the Corporate Finance team in January 2016. He is a Chartered Accountant with the ICAEW’s Corporate Finance Qualification and a degree in Accountancy and Finance. He has over 20 years of experience as a Corporate Finance Director, Finance Director and investor. Gerard was previously a Director … Continued

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Keith Benson

Keith joined Dow Schofield Watts in February 2012 from KPMG’s Preston office. He is a graduate in Mathematics and Economics from the London School of Economics and a qualified Chartered Accountant. Prior to joining KPMG, Keith spent 10 years working in the technology development industry with five years managing delivery of currency derivatives trading software … Continued

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Callum Sellar

Callum joined Dow Schofield Watts Corporate Finance in 2015, where he advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, disposals, buyouts, equity and debt fundraising, as well as strategic advice in relation to valuations, succession and exit planning. Since joining Dow Schofield Watts, he has worked on a variety of transactions across numerous sectors. Recent deals advised on … Continued

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David Smith

David joined Dow Schofield Watts as a director in June 2016. His previous role was as investment director with the North West Fund for Digital & Creative, which he oversaw from launch to full investment. The Fund was one of the most active VC investors in the UK technology and media sector, making over 40 … Continued

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Ed Brentnall

Ed jointly heads the financial due diligence business, Dow Schofield Watts Transaction Services LLP, which he helped to establish in December 2008. Ed qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Manchester and Minneapolis (USA) and then spent 5 years in their transaction services team. During this period Ed worked for a number of clients … Continued

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Catriona Lang

Catriona jointly heads the financial due diligence business Dow Schofield Watts Transaction Services LLP, which she jointly established in December 2008. She joined from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant in their audit department, before spending 5 years in their Transaction Services team in Manchester and London. Catriona has over 15 years … Continued

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Ros Jones

Ros joined Dow Schofield Watts Transaction Services in April 2015. She is an experienced Transaction Services practitioner, having previously been a manager in the M&A team at Midlands based financial advisory firm, Hazlewoods where she specialised in health and social care transactions. Most recently, Ros also has significant practical industry experience as a group financial … Continued

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Rob Parker

Rob is a Senior Manager in the Transaction Services team based in Daresbury. He joined Dow Schofield Watts in October 2015. After graduating with a degree in Economics from The University of Manchester, Rob qualified as a chartered accountant with CLB Coopers in Manchester and then spent two years with Grant Thornton. Since joining DSW … Continued

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David Houghton

David is a Chartered Accountant who, having trained with Ernst and Young, followed a path into industry before returning to the Accountancy Profession in London and then subsequently Manchester and Liverpool. Prior to his appointment as the senior partner of DSW Bridge Houghton Forensic, David was one of the founding partners of Bridge Houghton LLP. … Continued

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Lisa Moxon

Lisa is a partner in Dow Schofield Watts Business Recovery LLP. After graduating with a degree in Law from Liverpool John Moores University, she completed the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in Chester. In 2004 Lisa joined Unity Business Services, specialising in business recovery and insolvency work. Unity Business Services subsequently became … Continued

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Katie Armstrong

Katie is an Assistant Manager in Dow Schofield Watts Business Recovery LLP. Katie is a graduate of The University of Liverpool and holds a degree in Accounting and Finance. Katie, joined the Business Recovery team in July 2015 and has since gained a true insight into the world of insolvency and business recovery, working on … Continued

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John Carpenter

John is a partner in Dow Schofield Watts Business Recovery LLP. He has 20 years’ experience of working with owner managed businesses, and has specialised in business recovery and insolvency for the last 10 years. After graduating from the University of Sheffield and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, John worked in general practice as a … Continued

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Ben Barrett

Ben is one of the founding partners of Dow Schofield Watts Business Recovery LLP. Following graduation in geography and economics from Kings College in London, Ben joined Ernst and Young in London. In 1992 he moved to Coopers & Lybrand in Manchester and began to specialise in corporate recovery and insolvency. In 2002 Ben joined … Continued

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Daniel Walker

Dan joined DSW’s Corporate Finance team in June 2017. Dan is an ACA chartered accountant with almost four years of experience working at KPMG, advising a wide variety of listed and private clients and winning a number of awards for his exam results. Prior to this Dan graduated with a degree in Financial Mathematics from … Continued

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Thomas Dutton

Tom joined Dow Schofield Watts Corporate Finance in June 2017 after previously spending almost four years working in audit with KPMG, where he gained his ACA Chartered Accountant qualification, winning an award for his exam results. Tom studied at Lancaster University and has a degree in Accounting and Finance. Since joining DSW, Tom has worked … Continued

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