The FS Expert Group is pleased to announce further growth of its membership with the recent addition of Richard Firth, Helen Mullin, Roger Kean, and Mark Ross. The Group now consists of 65 Financial Services Experts, covering the full spectrum of expertise across the sector, including the recent reinforcement in the areas of fund management, compliance, credit risk, and fraud prevention.
Richard Firth is a seasoned investment professional with over 30 years of experience in fund management and financial services business leadership. He spent 18 years at Schroder Investment Management, primarily as an equity fund manager, with a focus on Taiwan, Korea, and Asia ex-Japan small cap equities. In 2007, he founded Firth Investment Management in Singapore, a boutique firm regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which he led for another 18 years.
Having worked in London for a decade before relocating to Asia in 1998, Richard has held roles in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Singapore. He is acquainted with a range of fund structures including Cayman Islands funds, Luxembourg UCITS, and Singapore Variable Capital Companies (VCC).
Richard is an active member of the CFA Society Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Directors, and the Singapore Fund Directors Association.
Helen Mullin is an independent consultant, non-executive director, trustee, and chartered accountant. She specialises in governance, risk management, and board effectiveness.
Helen specialised in the investment management sector for over 20 years, firstly as a senior manager with Price Waterhouse Coopers and more recently as Head of Regulatory & Operational Risk at Aegon Asset Management UK plc, where she was the compliance officer and money-laundering reporting officer. During this period she worked with numerous fund structures and asset classes. She headed the second line of defence, overseeing all aspects of an asset management business.
Helen provides support to boards and senior management across all sectors, including investment management. She is also a non-executive member of the Appointment Committee of the Financial Reporting Council, a member of the ICAEW Scottish Network Board and a trustee of Empty Kitchens Full Hearts SCIO.
Helen is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has an MA in Mathematics from Oxford.
Roger Kean has extensive investment banking experience, specialising in leveraged finance. After 15 years at JP Morgan he then moved to Barclays for 7 years before retiring. As Head of Leveraged Finance Credit Risk he has a wealth of transactional experience across multiple private equity firms and industry sectors.
He has been a Senior Credit Risk Approver and Senior Voter on Debt Underwriting Committees. He has worked with key partners in debt origination, capital markets & syndication, financial sponsor coverage, derivatives, and sector bankers. His roles have also included running portfolio management teams, regulatory responsibilities, restructuring, and investment grade lending. He has comprehensive transactional documentation and structuring experience and has worked extensively with all of the major law firms.
Roger was also a member of numerous reputational and disciplinary committees, subsidiary boards, and performance appraisal committees.
Mark Ross has over thirty years' compliance, risk management, governance, and AML/fraud prevention expertise across the investment sector, including with IMRO (Investment Management Regulatory Organisation – an FCA predecessor body), a number of senior compliance and risk roles, and Big Four consultancy experience with Deloitte, EY and KPMG, including the leading of Skilled Person's assignments.
Mark's industry roles include time with AXA Sun Life, 3i, Capita and Link and Lighthouse Group plc where he was a director and the company secretary of this quoted company.
Mark is a qualified KPMG-trained chartered accountant and former fellow of the Compliance Institute. He previously represented the intermediary sector on the Treasury/Home Office Money Laundering Advisory Committee and was a member of the Investment Association’s Prudential Committee.
The expertise of these additional Experts has significantly enhanced the experience across the Group, especially in the fields of fund structures in Southeast Asia, governance, leveraged finance and senior management systems and controls, as well as financial crime.
In welcoming these Experts to the Group, Oliver Lodge, Managing Director, said “The experience and expertise of these additions to the Group make a further contribution to what is already a group of exceptional depth and breadth across the financial services sector. The expertise that we are able to offer to litigants and others provides world-class credibility as well as highly respected independence of perspective. We know that solicitors and their clients need that credibility from Experts and that the courts require that independence. Solicitors also need to find the right Expert and do not want to spend weeks of their valuable time in the process.
Our Group of Experts provides an easily and swiftly accessible resource of financial services expertise. As we continue to grow our Group, we are delighted to welcome our newly joined Experts.”
The FS Expert Group focuses entirely on the financial services sector and provides expertise to litigants and others engaged in disputes and investigations relating to this leading professional sector in the UK and globally. In court, the Group provides expert witness evidence and independence of thought, based on extensive personal experience.
February 2026