Kroll promotes Ashley Houlden to managing director
Management consultancy Kroll (formerly Duff & Phelps) has promoted Ashley Houlden to managing director. The Toronto-based professional is a member of the governance, risk, investigations, and disputes practice.
Houlden’s appointment is part of a wider global promotion of 31 Kroll team members to managing director. The New York-based firm – which specializes in governance, risk, and transparency – promoted 18 people to managing director in the United States, four in the UK, two in Continental Europe, and four in Asia.
Houlden, the lone Canadian promotion, has a dozen years of experience in business valuation, corporate finance, financial advisory, and litigation support. She specializes in providing expert valuation and other reports quantifying financial loss and damages in the context of disputes and litigation, with expertise across shareholder disputes, acquisition price disputes, breach of contract, and fraudulent misrepresentation, among other areas.
Prior to joining Kroll in 2013, Houlden was an associate in the mergers and acquisitions branch of BMO Capital Markets, where she spent two years. She advised on M&A, asset divestiture, restructuring, valuation, and fairness opinions. Houlden focused on mining industry clients, providing strategic reviews and consulting on M&A and spinoffs, while also projecting the effects of transactions on share prices.
She began her career at accounting and consulting firm KPMG, where she was latterly an assurance manager in the energy and natural resources vertical. Houlden worked with mining clients in the firm’s Toronto and Johannesburg offices.
She holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in accounting from the University of Waterloo. Houlden is a chartered professional accountant and a chartered business valuator.
“At Kroll, our people are our greatest asset,” said Jacob Silverman, CEO of Kroll. “The last year underscored the need for independent, objective advice—to provide clarity amidst uncertainty—and our new managing directors exemplify what it means to provide value for our clients. I look forward to their continued success at the firm.”
Duff & Phelps in February rebranded to Kroll, a former subsidiary that it acquired in 2018. The company has more than 5,000 employees in 30 countries and territories, and provides services and solutions in valuation, corporate finance, restructuring, investigations, expert services, legal consulting, regulatory compliance, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
