Baker Tilly WM appoints Deepak Upadhyaya as digital technology & risk leader

Baker Tilly WM has welcomed Deepak Upadhyaya as a partner and leader of the firm’s digital technology & risk group. He brings more than 25 years of risk and technology advisory experience, and will be based in Toronto.

Baker Tilly Canada (formerly Collins Barrow) is a national cooperative of independent accounting and consulting firms. Each of the 20 constituent firms have autonomous ownership and management, while investing in national initiatives and representation. Baker Tilly Canada is further part of the global Baker Tilly International network which has 126 member firms with 36,322 people in 146 territories.

Baker Tilly WM is one of the larger constituent firms in Baker Tilly Canada. The firm was formed in 2018 through the merger of Collins Barrow Vancouver with accounting firms Wolrige Mahon (Vancouver) and CW Group (Toronto). The merger created a company with 20 partners and 160 professionals.

As leader of the digital technology and risk practice at Baker Tilly WM, Upadhyaya will support clients with services in digital transformation – including AI, automation, and cloud strategy – and cybersecurity and technology risk mitigation.

He joins the firm from RSM Canada’s Toronto office, where he was a vice president in the risk advisory practice. RSM Canada was formed from the Toronto office of Collins Barrow in 2017, subsequently adding three Collins Barrow offices in Alberta in 2018.

Prior to that, he was a vice president in risk assurance and analytics at Collins Barrow Toronto between 2014 and 2017. In the role, he worked with C-suite leaders to manage technology risk and increase organizational value via effective technology deployment.

Before Collins Barrow, Upadhyaya spent three-and-a-half years as chief information officer at Wellington Catholic District School Board, overseeing IT strategy, cloud services, and a major systems transformation project. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly a decade at Deloitte, serving as regional manager for IT governance.

He holds an MS in software systems technology from The University of Sheffield and a BS in computer science from the University of London.

“In response to the rapid advancement of technology and the growing number of clients seeking forward-looking business advice, our industry has started to shift away from a traditional compliance-based approach to providing services,” said managing partner Paul Websdale. “These advances in technology have created additional requirements for clients to address their business needs and the ways their business is conducted. The addition of Deepak to our firm and his significant experience in technology and risk management ensures we are well positioned to serve our clients now and into the future.”