PwC has appointed Gaenor Bagley to lead the firm’s people strategy and HR function.

Bagley takes up the role of head of people from 1 July having spent most of her career in tax, although she originally trained as an auditor.

She has held various people and leadership roles and was most recently leader of PwC’s private equity and M&A tax practice.

As the board level people partner, Bagley and her leadership team will focus on performance, diversity, resourcing, talent, development and engagement.

Sarah Churchman, PwC’s diversity director, says: “During these tough economic times when there’s little appetite for any new or costly initiatives, we’ve worked incredibly hard to embed the principles of diversity and inclusion into our talent management processes. We are building our talent pipeline to ensure that we can promote from within and foster female leadership talent.”