Ankura promoted seven of its valued professionals to senior managing director.
“As we continue to evolve and enhance our capabilities and how we serve and interact with our clients across the globe, it is critical that we have experienced, dedicated senior leaders to support and guide this development,” said Roger Carlile, CEO of Ankura. “Our success lies in the professionals we employ, and we are fortunate to have such a deep bench of premier industry talent. Each of these leaders embodies the Ankura spirit bringing the talent, expertise and client-centric focus that sets this firm apart.”
The newly promoted executives are:
Steven Collins is a construction specialist with a specialty in project advisory, claims and disputes in both the public and private sectors. His experience includes serving as project manager across a wide spectrum of projects ranging from high-rise office buildings to pharmaceutical and power projects and providing advisory services on government contracts valued at upwards of $1 billion.
Melissa Morea Evola has 24 years of experience in analyzing schedule delays and cost overruns on numerous engineering and construction projects as well as mitigating schedule risks for on-going projects. During her tenure, she has drawn upon her extensive expert and dispute avoidance experience to provide risk management, project management, planning/scheduling, and advisory services to parties at all stages of the project lifecycle. Evola has provided delay and damages expert testimony in arbitration, international arbitration, ADR, and DRB proceedings, mediations, and settlement negotiations. She brings an international perspective to Ankura having been retained on a variety of projects worldwide, including assignments based in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Kristina Kahan has more than 30 years of clinical, compliance, and coding experience. Since the early 1990s, she has specialized in providing coding, compliance, investigative, clinical, operational, and industry expertise to assist payers and providers. She is a registered nurse and a certified professional coder with a specialty in risk adjustment coding. Kahan’s expertise will bolster Ankura’s compliance and healthcare offerings.
Robert Olsen has more than 25 years of experience developing, implementing and managing complex cybersecurity and information technology enterprise risk management programs. He has served as a chief information officer and chief information security officer for clients across a diverse set of industries and organizational sizes. Having led an operations team supporting 2,500 global users during his time as an executive at Corvis Corporation and having successfully founded COMPASS Cybersecurity, Olsen’s extensive experience as a leader in the cybersecurity sector strengthens Ankura’s information security and information technology capabilities.
Keith Palzer has 30 years of financial industry experience in asset management, global markets and transactional and regulatory law. He has worked for investment banks, AmLaw 100 law firms, and the U.S. Treasury. Palzer has a track record of success in the financial advisory space providing strategy, compliance, operations, and risk advice to financial institutions, including banks, broker-dealers, commodities dealers, hedge funds and private equity funds. He serves as an expert witness, investigator, and litigation consultant in financial industry disputes, complex financial markets cases, and regulatory enforcement matters. Mr. Palzer brings business acumen and technical expertise to clients’
Philip M. Spinelli has more than 20 years of experience in the management, oversight and analysis of construction and manufacturing projects performing forensic and proactive investigations and developing risk management strategies on some of the largest and most complex projects throughout North America. He has expertise in dispute resolution consulting in the areas of project schedule delay analysis, errors and omissions reviews, productivity analysis, disputed extra work reviews, construction cost accounting and damages quantification.
Travis Taylor is a valuation specialist with significant experience assessing damages and opining on value in international arbitration and commercial litigation settings. Over the course of his career, he has been responsible for over 300 substantive valuations involving contentious and non-contentious matters in a variety of geographies including the UK, Europe, Middle East, Russia/CIS, Africa, North America and Australasia. Based in London, Taylor’s expertise is a welcome addition as Ankura expands the reach of its various practice areas to serve a global client base.