Ankura adds construction experts John Dowse and Fadi Nashed

Ankura has expanded its Americas construction practice with the addition of John Dowse and Fadi Nashed as senior managing director and managing director, respectively. Both are based in Toronto.

A press release from the Washington, DC-based business consulting firm said the new hires coincide with an “investment in establishing domestic operations” in Canada. The firm currently has no physical office locations in the country.

“We have been active in the Canadian market working for some of the country's largest owners and contractors on marquee projects," said Steve Pitaniello, business group leader for construction, Ankura. "We identified investment in Canada as a strategic imperative for our business and have been actively seeking the right people to join our team and represent the strength of our practice in Canada. The addition of Messrs. Dowse and Nashad demonstrates our commitment to geographic expansion, in general, and in Canada, specifically."

Dowse brings more than 35 years of global experience in construction, engineering, consulting, and dispute advisory services. He has deep expertise in project schedule delay and productivity analysis, cost and damages quantification, and has provided expert reports for arbitration and litigation in numerous jurisdictions.

Dowse was previously a quantum and delay expert in the UAE for Diales, a provider of expert witness services for the engineering and construction industry. He also ran his own consulting firm, Cerno Consulting Ltd., for the last decade. Before that, he was a vice president at Hill International, a global provider of construction project management services.

He holds an LLB in law from Nottingham Trent University and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Nottingham in the UK.

"The proven track record of Ankura's Construction Practice creates a compelling proposition for capital sources, contractors, and counsel in high-stakes construction matters in Canada," Dowse said.

Nashed brings more than a decade of construction industry experience, with expertise in dispute resolution, construction schedule analysis, project controls, contract administration, and project management. He has supported public sector owners, contractors and sub-contractors, design firms, and their legal counsel.

Nashed spent the last five years at construction consultancy Driver Trett, where most recently served as an associate director of construction claims and delays in the Toronto office. Before that, he was a claims and delay analyst at the Doha, Qatar office of Urbacon Contracting & Trading, and a senior planning engineer for HSE Contractors in the USA. Earlier in his career he was a senior planning engineer in the Cairo office of Orascom Construction.

He holds an LLM in construction law and arbitration from Robert Gordon University in Scotland and a BS in mechanical engineering from Ain Shams University in Egypt.

"I look forward to working with John in the Canadian market and our new colleagues around the world to provide sophisticated advice and objective opinions on significant infrastructure programs," said Nashed.

Founded in 2015, Ankura focuses on corporate performance and risk management, providing consulting services across compliance, investigations, forensics, technology, turnaround and restructuring, and corporate strategy. The consulting firm has over 1,500 employees across 30 global offices in the US, UK, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, and Australia.