Ankura Announces Wave of Senior Hires as it Significantly Expands Data and Technology Offering

Appointment of seven new Senior Managing Directors bolsters EMEA & Asia practice and marks Ankura’s latest global expansion following launch of Turnaround & Restructuring practice in London and Risk, Forensic & Compliance practice in Frankfurt

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LONDON – October 20, 2021 – Ankura Consulting, LLC (“Ankura”), a global expert services and advisory firm, announces today the addition of seven Senior Managing Directors to its London, Dubai, Mumbai, and Hong Kong offices.

The new arrivals comprise seven Senior Managing Directors who will help drive the growth of Ankura’s Data & Technology capabilities. These appointments are part of an additional future growth investment in London, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific in the Data and Technology business, with the majority based out of London.

The new hires will focus on building out Ankura’s Data and Technology offering, with added emphasis on machine learning and artificial intelligence, as Ankura looks to deliver automated and repeatable services to its clients in areas including monitoring and early identification of non-compliance, risk, fraud, financial crime, and cyber threats all of which are seeing rapidly increasing demand from businesses.

These senior hires underline Ankura’s international growth trajectory, following the recent launch of its restructuring practice in London and inaugural office opening with a forensic team in Germany in June.
The regional Data & Technology team will be headed by Paul Walker who brings over 25 years of expertise in technology consulting. In his previous roles, he built and led market leading Forensic Technology practices at ‘Big Four’ consultancies across EMEA and Asia and has a track record of successfully bringing innovative solutions to market.

Since its inception in 2014, Ankura has achieved significant annual growth and currently employs more than 1,500 professionals across 35 locations worldwide advising corporates on complex business challenges across multiple industries. One of the key drivers for Ankura’s growth is the structural change in the audit and advisory market with regulatory pressure on established firms worldwide creating space for a new, significant independent player.

Olaf Larson, Global Head of Data and Technology at Ankura, said: “Today, we welcome an exceptional group of talented professionals to our EMEA and Asia offices where their broad expertise across a number of sectors and specializations will provide immense value to our clients. We are excited to have them onboard and to help us drive our focus on data and technology.”

Simon Michaels, Chairman for EMEA and APAC at Ankura, added: “We are delighted that our new colleagues help position us to take our client offerings in the EMEA and Asia regions to the next level. Ankura’s accelerating growth and growing roster of experts have allowed us to attract some of the industry’s best talent, and these appointments perfectly reflects this. We are dedicated to offering best-in-class services that help clients protect, create, and recover value and our new colleagues enhance our ability to deliver on that commitment.”

Together with Paul Walker, the appointments across Data and Technology align with Ankura’s strategy of supporting clients with local, highly qualified teams with deep experience, providing businesses with access to independent experts and advisory services:

• Muthmainur Rahman, based in Dubai, strengthens the EMEA and Asia team through 14 years’ experience of building and leading Forensic Technology teams in the UK and Middle East.
• Andrew Pimlott, based out of Dubai and London, will strengthen Ankura’s Financial Services capabilities focused on Financial Crime, he will work closely with the Forensic Investigations teams across the region.
• Simon Placks, based in London, is a market leading expert in digital forensics and cyber security with 17 years’ experience and of building and leading forensic technology teams across all disciplines, and working with clients across Europe and South Africa.
• Brian Stuart, based in London, expands Ankura’s eDiscovery and litigation support capabilities in EMEA and Asia based out of London, with over 25 years’ experience working across numerous challenging multi-jurisdictional cases for notable corporations and law firms.
• Amit Jaju, based in Mumbai, joins with over 17 years of experience in consulting covering the full spectrum of forensic technology services with a focus on software license compliance and cyber security.
• Christopher Marks, based in Hong Kong, has over 20 years’ experience in digital forensics, cross border litigation support, legal document review and FCPA investigations. His expertise includes supporting complex civil and criminal investigations, technical expert witness and responding to cyber security incidents.

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