FTI adds three senior managing directors across service lines

FTI Consulting has bolstered its major service lines in Australia with the addition of Wouter Veugelen and former KPMG partners Michael Khoury and Hayden White as senior managing directors.

The global professional services firm has recruited three new senior managing directors to its cybersecurity, corporate finance & restructuring, and technology practices in Australia: Sydney-based pair Wouter Veugelen and Michael Khoury together with Hayden White in Perth.

The new hires follow the firm’s recent round of annual promotions, which saw Paul Harlond and Cameron Morse also elevated to senior managing director.

“These hires continue the firm’s commitment to investing in talent in Australia and globally to help our clients across many industries address complex challenges,” said FTI Australian practice lead Mark Dewar. “Their deep sector expertise and market knowledge reflect the changing needs of our clients as we see more large-scale cyber attacks, a growing risk of insolvencies, and an ever-shifting regulatory and litigation landscape in Australia.”

Wouter Veugelen joins FTI Consulting in Sydney following a three-year stint at Santos and 2021 merger partner Oil Search, where he served as Chief Information Security Officer.

He also previously served for over four and a half years as a cybersecurity consulting director for PwC, before which he spent almost seven years in information security with Ernst & Young, originally joining the firm in Brussels in 2006 before transferring to Sydney two years later.

Now, Veugelen will head up FTI’s cybersecurity offering in Australia, where he is tasked with continuing to expand the practice and enhance client resilience and regulatory compliance. In this role, Veugelen will advise on infosec-related matters as to strategy, program delivery, assessments, compliance and incident response, along with conducting complex investigations on cyber incidents in order to provide cutting-edge, data-driven solutions.

Michael Khoury crosses from KPMG to become a senior managing director in FTI’s Technology segment in Sydney, bringing two decades worth of experience in digital forensics, expert witness testimony, e-discovery and fraud investigations.

Khoury joined KPMG’s partnership upon its acquisition of Ferrier Hodgson in 2019, where he was a professional and partner for over nine years. Earlier he spent over five and a half years as a member of PwC’s forensic & investigations team.

According to FTI, Khoury specialises in providing advice “on the latest trends in computer forensic and technology risk services for clients confronted with issues relating to fraud, data management, breaches of confidentiality and intellectual property theft,” and will in his new role focus on assisting organisations, corporate counsel, law firms and litigating parties with the application of computer forensic skills to provide answers to legal and investigative cases.

Alongside Khoury, Hayden White has been brought in from KPMG’s partnership, where he spent the past 14 years working on large-scale insolvency and restructuring assignments for financiers, boards, banks and other corporate and business clients, including conducting independent business reviews and acting as an independent expert on solvency-related matters.