New Senior Managing Directors for FTI Consulting in China and Singapore

FTI Consulting, a global consulting firm with offices in over twenty five countries, has promoted two of its senior advisors in Asia to Senior Managing Director level. Eddie Lam works for the firm’s Forensic & Litigation Consulting practice, based in Shanghai, while Richard Hayler serves its Economic Consulting arm, based in Singapore.

Eddie Lam has been with FTI Consulting since the summer of 2014, joining from German engineering firm Siemens, where he was a Director based in Beijing, responsible for overseeing all compliance related audits and forensic accounting matters in the Asia Pacific region.

At FTI Consulting, he leads the Forensic Accounting & Advisory Services practice for China. He has provided accounting, investigative and compliance related expertise in litigation, crisis and audit situations for nearly two decades. Lam has led engagements in over 20 countries spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, assisting clients with regulatory inquiries and other allegations of wrongdoing including financial reporting fraud, corruption/bribery, misappropriation of assets and employee misconduct.

Additionally, Lam has significant experience in advising on and implementing various proactive compliance and risk mitigation initiatives that help companies protect their interests, both commercially and legally. Prior to working with Siemens, Lam was a Director in PwC’s Forensic Services practice out of New York where he led and assisted on several large scale forensic accounting and anti-corruption investigations, and was also a Manager at Big Four rival KPMG. 

Richard Hayler, who is based in Singapore and serves FTI Consulting’s Economic & Financial Consulting segment, specialises in the assessment of quantum, financial and accounting issues in contentious matters. Before joining the US headquartered consulting firm, Hayler spent eight years in the audit, corporate finance and financial advisory groups of two Big Four firms – Deloitte (5 years) and KPMG (3 years). Prior to that, he was the Technical Director of a Life Science consultancy company in the United Kingdom.

Over the course of his career, Hayler has managed or consulted on a diverse array of issues including valuation, loss of profits, shareholder and contractual disputes, necessity of capital injection, accounting treatment and irregularities, financial implications of contractual terms, financial instruments and markets, patent infringement and royalty rates, market manipulation, alleged misappropriation, asset tracing and fraud investigations. 

During the his career, he has directly advised or led teams for ten globally recognised expert witnesses, including some of the largest and most complex cases in the last decade. His litigation and arbitration case experience includes the U.K. High Court, Singapore High Court, Singapore International Commercial Court, Tokyo District Court, Cayman Grand Court, Australian Federal Courts, U.S. Supreme Court and various arbitral tribunals under ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL and SIAC rules. 

In 2015, the FTI Senior Managing Director was appointed to the Singapore International Mediation Centre’s first Panel of Experts for Accountancy. Hayler has also sat on the Board of Directors of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in Singapore since 2012 and holds the office of Honorary Treasurer. 

FTI Consulting promotions in Australia

Meanwhile, in Australia, FTI Consulting also added two new Senior Managing Directors to its leadership ranks. Joseph Hansell is based in Sydney and is a member of the Turnaround & Restructuring Services within the Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment. He has 17 years of experience in corporate recovery, restructuring, and turnaround management. He joined the firm in the summer of 2016 from Ferrier Hodgson, an Australia and Asia focused financial advisory and restructuring consultancy, where he latterly served as a Director.

Robert Skeffington is also based in Sydney, and is part of the Strategic Communications segment. Prior to joining FTI at the end of 2014, he was previously a Senior Advisor at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. During his seven years at McKinsey, he was seconded for nearly two years as Head of Strategy at media company APN News & Media. In that role, he led the company’s strategic initiatives, including corporate restructuring, asset sales and transformation.

Skeffington specialises in strategic communications, reputation management, corporate strategy and regulatory affairs and has served clients primarily in the natural resources and public sector. He has an extensive understanding of the media industry, having worked as both a finance reporter in Melbourne and a political correspondent based in the Canberra Press Gallery. He was also Deputy Editor at business magazine BRW, and was a regular contributor to international publications such as the Wall Street Journal. His political experience was honed as a Canberra-based lobbyist for an industry organisation contributing to the economic reform initiatives of the 1990s. 

With more than 4,600 employees located in 28 countries, FTI Consulting is one of the globe’s largest business advisory firms.