Managing Director - Multiple Teams

Ankura appoints Joanne Taylor as chief operating officer. 26 August 2026 Consulting.us Ankura, a New York-headquartered expert services and advisory firm, has appointed Joanne Taylor as chief operating officer. Based in the firm's headquarters, Taylor brings more than 30 years of experience in professional and business services - with expertise across strategy, operations, business transformation, and building high-performance teams. As COO, Taylor will oversee Ankura's global corporate functions - finance, operations, it, risk management, and real estate and workplace services, including the firm's business services center in India - supporting the firm's ambition to double in size. She joins from AlixPartners, where she spent more than six years and was a partner and managing director and co-leader of the global business transformation and Americas strategy and analysis practices. At the consultancy, Taylor worked with clients on large-scale transformations to drive revenue, margin expansion, and capital efficiency. Before that, Taylor spent 13 years with human capital management (HCM) firm ADP, where she served as division vice president and general manager of the upmarket HCM outsourcing business (HR, payroll, benefits, workforce planning, and talent acquisition). In the role, she led 1,500 people across $450 million in P&L responsibility. Earlier in her career, Taylor worked at IBM and PwC. She has an MBA from Baylor University and a bachelor's degree in business and marketing from Graceland University. "I'm honored to join Ankura at such a pivotal moment and look forward to working with the team to strengthen how the firm operates, to connect our businesses, and to build the modern, technology- and data-driven corporate services that will help Ankura scale with discipline," Taylor said. Ankura has more than 2,000 professionals across 35+ global locations. The firm delivers advisory services in turnaround, finance, operations, risk and disputes, investigations, talent, data, and AI. Ankura earlier this year launched a managed services offering for financial crime compliance operations.

Ankura strengthens Financial Services practice with senior hire Shariq Nazim. 20 August 2026 Consultancy-me.com Ankura has strengthened its Financial Services practice in the region with the hire of Shariq Nazim, who has been appointed as a Senior Managing Director. Based in the firm's Riyadh office, Nazim brings more than 25 years of experience in financial services and digital banking across the Gulf region. He joins the firm from Accenture, where he was a Managing Director and is credited with expanding its digital banking advisory capability through a successful go-to-market approach that helped to substantially grow the client pipeline. Before that, he held executive roles at banking institutions Aion Digital, where he served as Chief Technology and Growth Officer, and Gulf Bank, where he was Head of Strategy & Digital Transformation. At Ankura, he will advise banking and financial institutions at the executive level on topics including core banking transformation, digital strategy, and large-scale modernisation programmes across both 'Build the Bank' and 'Transform the Bank' environments. "I'm excited to be joining Ankura - a place where culture isn't just a value on a wall, it's how the team actually operates. I'm looking forward to building out the Financial Services practice across the GCC alongside such a talented team. My main area of focus will be helping banking executives modernise faster and make better technology decisions by delivering transformation that creates long-term value." Nazim maintains long-standing relationships with senior executives at leading GCC financial institutions, including executives at the CEO and CIO levels at banks in Riyadh, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. "We're pleased to welcome Shariq to Ankura. He has a deep understanding of both business strategy and technology implementation, combined with extensive experience working alongside leading banking and cloud technology providers," said Ankura of its latest hire in the region. Earlier in his career, Nazim spent over fifteen years in the UK, working at Big Four firm EY in its consulting arm and for Lloyds Bank and HBL.

Vertex hires Chad Paulin as AI strategy officer. 01 July 2026 Consulting.us The Vertex Companies, a New York-headquartered management consulting firm, has hired Chad Paulin as AI strategy officer, effective August 2026. Based in Atlanta, Paulin will develop Vertex's AI strategy and will work clients to address their project needs. "As AI continues to rapidly evolve and its full capabilities are uncovered, it's crucial Vertex is developing and executing a strategy for our firm and our clients," said Mary Beth Edwards, chief commercial officer and head of global business, Vertex. "While we have already integrated AI into some of our technology, Vertex will benefit from having Chad's creative, strategic mindset on our leadership team helping to propel us forward." Paulin has more 25 years of experience in litigation consulting, with a focus on illustrations and visualizations for life sciences sector disputes. A scientific and medical illustrator, Paulin has deep expertise supporting corporate and legal firm clients with medical illustration and animation, code-based data visualization, 3D illustration, and interactive multimedia. He has assisted litigation clients across matters including pharmaceutical product liability, medical malpractice, toxic tort, insurance, antitrust, breach of contract, and environmental issues. Paulin has helped develop several proprietary tools for visual communication and litigation presentation, and has a patent pending as sole inventor on a unique data visualization platform. "Not only is Chad a proven leader, but he is also a true innovator in the consulting industry with experience creating tools and solutions with meaningful impacts for clients," Edwards added. Paulin joins from Ankura, where he was a founding partner and a senior managing director in the disputes and economics group. Before Ankura, he spent nine years at FTI Consulting, where he was a managing director. Earlier in his career, Paulin was a graphics technology manager at TrialGraphix. Paulin has a bachelor's degree in scientific illustration from the University of Georgia. Vertex was founded in 1995 and has more than 900 people across the US, Canada, UK, Qatar, and UAE. The firm provides strategic advisory, project management, and dispute resolution services to law firms and clients in construction, real estate, aviation, manufacturing, energy, and government. Vertex has practices in technical claims and disputes, dispute and expert witness services, compliance and regulatory, risk assessment and loss control, and project advisory.