Deloitte appoints Jarrod Baker to lead forensic investigations in Southeast Asia

Deloitte has appointed Jarrod Baker as the new investigations leader of its Forensics practice in in Southeast Asia.

In an ongoing expansion into what is becoming an increasingly competitive market, Big Four professional services leader Deloitte has appointed industry veteran Jarrod Baker as its new Forensic Investigations Leader for Southeast Asia. Baker joins as a partner in the firm’s Singapore office, and brings close to 20 years of experience in forensic accounting across multiple jurisdictions.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting & Corporate Administration from Australia’s Curtin University in 1999, Baker has since amassed two decades of forensics field experience, originally kicking off his career with Deloitte before going on to lead FTI Consulting’s Forensic Accounting and Advisory practice in Singapore, via stints at another Big Four, KordaMentha, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Over the course of his career, Baker has conducted numerous high profile and complex financial crime investigations involving top regulators in the US, UK and Australia, as well as for large financial institutions and corporates across Southeast Asia and globally, further gaining experience setablishing, building and leading multi-disciplinary forensic teams in professional services firms – including as a director of Australian boutique KordaMentha.

In addition, Baker is a member of the board of directors for the Australian affiliate of Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption, and has been recognised as a leading international forensics expert on Who’s Who Legal’s list of Global Elite Thought Leaders for 2019, noted as “an excellent forensic accountant” who is particularly well known for his “fantastic work on fraud investigations and asset tracing”.

“Jarrod is highly regarded for his strong client focus and deep expertise,” said Tim Phillipps, Deloitte’s Southeast Asia Forensic Leader. “The addition of Jarrod to our team will further establish Deloitte Forensic as a leading forensic player across the SEA region in terms of capability and geographical reach. Combined with our existing forensic experts, we look forward to making a continued and substantial impact in the market.”

“It’s great to be back at the firm where I started my career as a forensic accountant,” Baker said in a Linkedin post, possibly revealing another upcoming recruitment coup for Deloitte: FTI Consulting Senior Managing Director, Richard Hayler. “Excited to work with such a talented team and help expand Deloitte Forensic’s capabilities across Southeast Asia alongside my fellow partners Tim Phillipps, Radish Singh, Darren Cerasi and soon, Richard Hayler.”

According to Deloitte, the firm’s Southeast Asia forensics practice has grown substantially over the past three years, including the 2016 acquisition of local electronic discovery services provider I-Analysis, with a team of 125 forensics professionals now spread across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The growth mirrors the segment in the region in general, with greater regulatory scrutiny and compliance obligations, ever-improving forensics technology, and growing inbound investment providing ample market opportunities.

“Asia provides tremendous opportunities for investors and companies wanting to do a deal to expand but they must do their homework to avoid coming unstuck due to fraud,” Baker previously told Who’s Who Legal. “Involving forensic accountants in the due diligence process can be invaluable – we can help with further scrutiny of the numbers in the financial statements, be on the lookout for red flags and where necessary, conduct a deeper dive into such red flags.”