Welcome to our new colleagues – July and August 2024
27th September 2024
In July and August 2024, we welcomed 24 new colleagues to our global team.
This included strengthening our Forensic Accounting and Commercial Damages team with sixteen people, including Partners Scott Van Meter in Houston and Dr. Charles Parekh in Chicago and strengthening our Africa operations with the appointment of Murray Michell.
We’re always looking to expand our team; please take a look at our current vacancies to see our latest opportunities.
Akif Affan
Senior Consultant | Construction Claims and Expert Services
Singapore
Akif Affan has over 10 years of industry experience within Southeast Asia, Middle East and Hong Kong. He began his career as a consultant Quantity Surveyor and later specialises in contracts, claims and dispute management where he has represented specialist contractors, developers and law firms.
He has extensive experience working on major international energy and civil engineering projects from the multi-billion-dollar projects such as the Klang Valley Double Tracking (KVDT), Malacca Gateway Developments, Light Rail Transport 3 (LRT3), the high-end learning institution for Petronas Leadership Centre, Cross Bay Link (CBL) in Hong Kong to the Edra Melaka Power Plant, being the largest combined cycle gas-fired power plant.
Akif is an accredited expert having testified in court and arbitration on matters of quantum and commercial. During his career he has successfully mediated parties in marine works disputes for out-of-court settlement. Akif also lectures in higher learning institutions in Malaysia on subjects of a similar nature, including other speaking engagements.
Gopaal Aggarwal
Associate Consultant | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Gopaal Aggarwal has joined HKA’s Los Angeles office as an Associate Consultant. He recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master’s in Business Analytics and a Bachelor’s in Economics. Gopaal is eager to develop his expertise in the Forensic Accounting and Commercial Damages practice and build strong connections with his colleagues.
Arman Balian
Associate Consultant | Forensic Accountant & Commercial Damages
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Arman Balian joins the Los Angeles office as an Associate Consultant after earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration, with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, from the University of Southern California in December 2023. During his time at USC, Arman gained valuable experience as a project manager for a deep tech startup, honing his skills in strategic planning, data analysis, and team leadership. Arman is excited to start his professional journey as he begins his career with HKA.
Jackson Dutton
Associate Consultant | Government Contracts
Washington, DC, USA
Jackson Dutton rejoins the Washington DC office as a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.
He brings experience in finance and accounting from his internship in Government Contracts, coupled with his management experience. He is excited to continue expanding his knowledge and extend his expertise at the DC office.
Adam Einbinder
Manager | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
San Francisco, CA, USA
Adam Einbinder has over six years of experience in intellectual property, economic, and valuation consulting. Adam’s expertise lies in the areas of financial and economic modeling and analysis. He advises clients in the context of commercial damages and the valuation of tangible and intangible assets across a variety of industries, including in the semiconductor, SaaS (software as a service), electronics, healthcare, real estate, and power industries. He holds a MSc in Applied Economics and Econometrics and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Resource Economics.
Ben Fisher
Associate Consultant | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Paris, France
Ben Fisher joined our Paris office as a recent graduate of the École Polytechnique, receiving a Masters degree in Economics, Corporate Finance and Data Analytics with a focus in corporate valuations and econometrics. With previous experience as an intern across a variety of sectors including the Financial services and Consumer goods sectors, Ben is excited to establish his future career in the FACD team.
Veronique Foulon
Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
London, UK
Veronique Foulon brings over 12 years of experience in business intelligence and investigations, aiding clients across Financial Services, Telecommunications, Aerospace, Construction, Hospitality, and Manufacturing with third-party risk management, integrity due diligence, asset tracing, and US FCPA and OFAC investigations. She prepared reports for submission by lawyers to the Serious Fraud Office in relation to billion-dollar funds embezzled into Western European real estate.
Previously, she led a team of 40+ high-performing multilingual analysts, tackling global compliance, ESG, fraud, corruption, money laundering, and sanction circumvention risks. Vero is passionate about fostering inclusion, learning, development, and performance.
Michael Haddad
Associate Consultant | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Toronto, ON, Canada
Michael Haddad has joined HKA’s Toronto FACD team as an Associate Consultant. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at York University with a specialization in Finance. Michael is a registered student of the CBV Institute working towards his Chartered Business Valuator designation.
Michael has experience working in the financial industry, primarily in Asset Management. In his time in Asset Management, he analyzed large datasets and various risk metrics to establish corporate value.
Peter Henry
Associate Consultant | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Peter Henry is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California where he studied Public Policy with an emphasis in Data Analytics. He is excited to join HKA full-time after his internship last summer in the Los Angeles office. He is excited to be joining the team and growing his knowledge in the FACD practice.
Margaux Jarry
Associate Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Paris, France
Margaux Jarry has over ten years of experience in international investment and commercial arbitration, in which she applies her economic and financial expertise to complex valuation and damages issues. She also applies her expertise and analytical skills to assist companies on regulatory and strategic matters.
She has assisted French and multinational companies in various countries around the world, particularly in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and her experience covers many industry sectors, including energy, telecommunications and construction.
Before joining HKA in 2024, Margaux worked in the international arbitration department of FTI Consulting in Paris and London. Margaux is based in Paris. Margaux is a graduate of ESCP-Europe (Master in Management, 2013) and of Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Supelec) (Degree in engineering, 2013).
Fjolla Kondirolli
Managing Consultant | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
London, UK
Dr Fjolla Kondirolli is a PhD Economist with a strong focus on econometrics. She has extensive experience in causal analysis and applied microeconomics with a proven track record of applying these skills to real-world scenarios. Her research has been published in various journals and she has presented her work at numerous conferences and seminars. Previously, Fjolla held positions at the London School of Economics, UNDP, Cornell University, and the World Bank Group.
Fjolla holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex, a Master’s in Public Administration from Cornell University, and a B.Sc in Economics and Public Policy from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Alexander Lee
Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
New York, NY, USA
Alexander Lee joins as Director based in New York City. With over 15 years of professional experience, he is a testifying expert specializing in business valuations and damages quantification. Alex has worked on engagements covering a variety of industries, including mining, energy, banking, commodities trading, and real estate development. Using his background in accounting, assurance, and business valuations, he has testified and prepared expert reports for commercial and investor-state disputes in multiple jurisdictions. Alex is recognized in Who’s Who Legal (WWL) Arbitration Future Leaders, Mining, and Thought Leaders USA – Mining guides that highlight the most prominent experts from around the world.
Before joining HKA, Alex worked as a director at AlixPartners. He earned both his Master of Accounting and his Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Waterloo. Alex is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in Ontario and a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV).
Nollie Mahlangeni
Financial Analyst | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Johannesburg, South Africa
Nollie Mahlangeni has a wide scope of professional investigation experience, ranging from investigating low-level corruption to high-level complex financial statement fraud, misconduct, supply chain management, theft, and financial misrepresentations. She has a background in accounting as well as internal and external auditing (assurance) which makes her an excellent candidate analysis of complex financial data and interpretation of the data in terms of the allegations raised.
Murray Michell
Partner, Strategic Advisory, Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa
Murray has over 27 years of experience in the advisory field, most recently providing wide-ranging support and guidance to the South African Minister of Public Enterprises in his efforts to stabilise State-Owned Companies (SOCs) such as Eskom (energy) and Transnet (freight logistics and ports). He has also developed approaches to dealing with crime and corruption, which severely eroded the capacity of these entities during the period of state capture in the country.
During Murray’s diverse career, he established South Africa’s anti-money laundering framework and served as Director of the Financial Intelligence Centre. He participated in a wide range of senior government committees, led the country’s participation in the Financial Action Task Force, the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units, which he also chaired, and served on expert panels of the United Nations.
Recently, Murray provided management support to the work of the Presidential State-owned Enterprises Council (PSEC), during which he delivered a report and proposal to the President of South Africa for the establishment of a State-Owned Holding Company.
Alyssa Murphy
Global Partner Recruitment Project & ED&I Manager
London, UK
Alyssa joins our London office as a Global Partner Recruitment Project and ED&I Manager. Alyssa will be utilising her experience in education and project management to assist with HKA’s global partner recruitment activities and drive ED&I initiatives globally. Alyssa is excited to work within the people team and wider HKA community
Charles Parekh
Partner, Economics | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Chicago, IL, USA
Charles Parekh is an expert witness with over 20 years of experience specializing in economic and statistical analysis for finance, healthcare, and public policy issues. His extensive background in dispute consulting and litigation support includes work in class actions, healthcare, education, statistical sampling, and structured finance.
Dr. Parekh specializes in leading projects that use financial, statistical, and economic modeling to calculate damages and losses. His expertise encompasses the analysis of extensive transactional data to calculate damages in litigation related to financial markets, mortgage transactions, and healthcare billing and coding. He has led statistical and economic modeling teams in various repurchase litigations and bankruptcies, using statistical sampling and analysis to estimate repurchase liabilities. Additionally, Dr. Parekh’s experience includes sampling transactions to detect price fixing, conducting event studies to assess investor damages, applying statistical techniques in internal investigations, and using surveys and regressions to value intellectual property.
Ryno Pepler
Associate Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Johannesburg, South Africa
Ryno Pepler is an experienced Forensic Accountant with over 20 years of experience. He commenced his career between 1999 and 2013 at Deloitte & Touche. As a Chartered Accountant (SA) and Admitted Attorney, Ryno demonstrates exceptional expertise in forensic investigations, dispute services, and business valuations. His expansive experience includes conducting over 70 forensic investigations across a spectrum of industries, in both private and public sectors. Ryno has specialised in addressing misconduct in all its forms: fraud, theft, corruption, corporate impropriety, accounting discrepancies, and money laundering. His investigations have spanned across numerous African countries (Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe) and European countries (England, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands), giving him a diverse international perspective.
Praveen Perera
Associate Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Toronto, ON, Canada
Praveen Perera joins our Toronto office as an Associate Director in the Forensic Accounting and Commercial Disputes team. He has more than 10 years of professional experience, mainly assisting clients with economic loss quantification and contentious business valuations. He has supported clients in a range of litigation matters including shareholder disputes, oppression claims, breach of contract, and expropriations across a diverse group of industries. Praveen is a designated Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator.
Karen Rayment
Director | Forensic Technical Services
Tampa, FL, USA
Karen Rayment is an experienced forensic electrical engineer who has provided expert witness and litigation support in civil courts nationally. Karen joins HKA as a Director based in Tampa, Florida, with more than 16 years of experience in formal failure analysis engineering, where she has specialized in risk management, regulatory compliance, and product safety for various industries, including data centers, consumer electronics, power grid equipment, sub-sea cables, and home medical devices. Her expertise lies in failure mode and critical effects analysis. Karen works closely with clients and their global engineering teams, quality assurance executives, and the boards of directors, along with manufacturers, corporate counsel, and litigation teams, to help them resolve complex engineering issues.
Before joining HKA, Karen was a Senior Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS). She received her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in International Strategic Management from California State University, her Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from San Francisco State University, and her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Karen is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in eight states.
Irma Raza
Director | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
London, UK
Irma is a forensic accountant with over 10 years of experience in forensic investigations and disputes, specialising in the quantification of damages and loss for the purposes of commercial and transaction-related disputes. Prior to joining HKA, Irma was a Senior Manager at PWC.
Irma has assisted lawyers and clients on a wide range of arbitral proceedings (DIAC, ICSID, ICC, LCIA) and the UK High Court, and provided expert witness support for loss-of-profits claims, breach of contract disputes, and transaction-related disputes, including breach of warranty, claims, and earn-out disputes.
Olivia Trevena
Associate Consultant | Government Contracts
Washington, DC, USA
Olivia Trevena recently graduated from the George Washington University in May 2024, with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business. She rejoins HKA as a full-time employee in the Washington, D.C. office, following a summer internship in Government Contracts. Olivia looks forward to collaborating with colleagues on both international and domestic projects and increasing her knowledge of consultancy.
Rex Tse
Associate Consultant | Claims
Chicago, IL, USA
Rex Tse has recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) with a Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He completed three previous internships within the construction industry as part of teams of general contractors and owners’ representation joint venture groups working on projects in the transportation, aviation, and residential industries.
Carlos Turizo
Director | Forensic Technical Services
New York, NY, USA
Carlos Turizo, a forensic structural engineer, brings more than 20 years of experience in the construction, engineering, and forensic investigation fields. He specializes in investigating large and complex losses in the infrastructure, energy, utility, commercial, and residential industries. Carlos has provided forensic engineering services to an array of professionals, ranging from attorneys and insurance executives to property owners and contractors, throughout the Western Hemisphere. He has also served as an expert witness and lead expert in arbitration and litigation on numerous occasions.
Carlos, who previously served as an Independent Consulting Expert with HKA, now steps into the role of Director based in New York City. He received his Master of Business Administration at Pennsylvania State University, his Master of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Central Florida, and his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Carlos is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Florida and Colombia, and a Special Inspector registered in Florida.
Scott Van Meter
Partner | Forensic Accounting & Commercial Damages
Houston, TX, USA
Scott Van Meter joins as Partner based in Houston, TX. He has over 35 years of experience in litigation consulting, bankruptcy and restructuring, valuation, and forensic accounting. Scott provides financial advisory and litigation support to clients, including plaintiffs, defendants, corporations, debtors, and creditors. He has been designated as an expert witness in more than 100 complex disputes involving commercial, intellectual property, accounting/auditing malpractice, valuation, and economic damages throughout North America and Europe. Additionally, his expertise has extended to providing testimony in bankruptcy-related disputes, including avoidance matters, solvency, and claims litigation.
Before joining HKA, Scott was a managing director at B. Riley Financial. He received his Juris Doctorate (JD) from Stetson University College of Law and his Bachelor of Business Administration and Accounting from Washington and Lee University. Scott is a certified public accountant (CPA) licensed in Texas and Florida and a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (CIRA). He is also Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF).
