A corporate recovery specialist who has helped a range of Scottish football clubs including Heart of Midlothian survive tough times, Bryan Jackson, has signed for Johnston Carmichael chartered accountants.

Mr Jackson has joined the Scottish business services firm as a consultant after a 34 year career at the PKF accountancy operation, where he worked on a range of high profile cases. These included acting as administrator of the USC and Gadget Shop retail businesses.

Johnston Carmichael said Mr Jackson has successfully led the formal insolvency appointments for six football clubs in Scotland, including Motherwell, and of Portsmouth in England. All the clubs continue to operate.

When he was appointed administrator of Hearts in June 2013 Mr Jackson said the club’s situation was the worst he’d seen in football.

The club emerged from administration last year after entrepreneur Ann Budge took control.

Mr Jackson said “After 34 fantastic years at PKF (which latterly merged with BDO) I feel really energised by this new opportunity with Johnston Carmichael.”

He joins Johnston Carmichael as a consultant and will be based out of the firm’s Glasgow office, working across Scotland.

Matt Henderson, Head of Restructuring at Johnston Carmichael, said: “Bryan is one of the most experienced and respected insolvency practitioners in the UK and brings tremendous value to the firm. With a long and distinguished track record, he has a wealth of experience and excellent links into a wide range of referral sources including banks, solicitors, accountants and advisory services as well as other corporate and personal clients.”