PricewaterhouseCoopers has set up an advisory board of nine external non-executives from finance and business to support the growth of its European mergers and acquisitions advisory business.

The new board will be chaired by Roger Freeman, a former director of PwC and currently director of Thales, the European defence and aerospace company. Freeman served as a UK minister in the last Conservative government. The plan is that Freeman and his other advisory board members will increase the firm's relationships and deal-flow on a pan-European scale across a number of industry sectors.