Mazars Neville Russell, Europe's sixth-largest accountancy partnership, has recruited David Whitelaw, a former Paribas corporate finance director, to build a corporate finance team for middle-market European mergers and acquisitions.

Whitelaw left Paribas in 2000 after it was taken over by BNP, the rival French bank. The BNP corporate finance team largely replaced Paribas's own team. Since then Whitelaw has been working as an independent consultant.