Ankura appointment spree continues with cyber expert Shannon Sedgwick

Global professional services firm has appointed cybersecurity expert Shannon Sedgwick as a Senior Managing Director, continuing a recent run of senior appointments and promotions.

Since the appointment of Kevin Lavin to succeed founder and former CEO Roger Carlile at start of the year, global business advisory and professional services firm Ankura has embarked on a run of senior appointments and promotions – the latest, cybersecurity expert Shannon Sedgwick, who has been made a Senior Managing Director with a mandate to expand the firm’s offerings to the Asia Pacific and beyond.

To be based out of Sydney, Sedgewick joins from Verizon, where he had served as a principal consultant over the past year, prior to which he spent a brief period as a Senior Manager at Deloitte, helping the develop the firm’s cyber risk practice in Canberra. An MBA-graduate with Deakin University, Sedgewick altogether brings 15 years of professional experience in compliance, risk management and cyber security.

“Shannon is a respected data privacy and cybersecurity leader, and I am pleased to welcome him to our Ankura team,” said Simon Michaels, Chairman of EMEA and APAC at Ankura. “Shannon exemplifies the uniquely talented professionals who comprise our client-focused team at Ankura, and we look forward to Shannon’s contributions and our continued investment in our consultants and services offering to clients.”

With high-level government, finance, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure consulting experience under his belt, Sedgwick will now serve on compliance and risk-reduction solutions for Ankura clients as well as advise on the implementation of new and evolving technologies, with responsibility for augmenting and expanding the firm’s cyber offering to its growing operations in the Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions.

“Ankura’s point of differentiation and strength lies in its depth of experience providing tailored, customer-centric solutions for the most complex issues in the market,” Sedgwick said of his motivation to join the fast-growing consulting firm. “For this reason, I am thrilled to be joining the fantastic team at Ankura and to work with my colleagues to drive efficiencies and unlock value for our clients in Australia, the larger APAC region and globally.”

Sedgewick’s appointment continues a recent recruitment and promotion spree at Ankura, including several announcements made over the past month alone. Earlier in April, former British Intelligence Services member joined Ankura’s London-based investigations team as a Senior Managing Director, while affiliate Ankura Trust named co-founder and former COO James McGinley as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Also this month, as a number of other consultancies are instituting hiring freezes and pay-cuts, Ankura made 135 company-wide promotions. “Working together, relying upon our values, and continuing to invest in one another strengthens the foundation of our firm and allows us to maintain our equilibrium even in uncertain times,” said Ankura President Philip Daddona. The firm also recently welcomed Christina Wong as its new CFO.