Ashurst Risk Advisory expands with 4 new partners and new infrastructure team

Global law firm Ashurst has grown its legal-led risk consulting division with the appointment of four Risk Advisory partners and the establishment of a new Infrastructure, Places and Capital Projects Advisory offering. Matthew Dunn, Cameron Jaggers and Ben Rooke will join the Ashurst team to form and lead Infrastructure, Places and Capital Projects Advisory, and Sonia Haque-Vatcher will join as a new lead partner of Ashurst Risk Advisory's Data & Analytics team.

The four senior hires reflect the sustained growth of Australia's infrastructure and energy sectors driven by technological and data advancements, policy and demographic shifts, and sustainability goals.

Infrastructure, Places and Capital Projects Advisory will expand Ashurst's existing Risk Advisory practice by combining strategic policy, commercial advisory, and project risk advisory capabilities to support clients across the project lifecycle. The offering will complement Ashurst's Projects & Energy Transition team, which has built a widely lauded legal practice assisting governments and the private sector on the delivery of major projects and other government initiatives.

Ashurst's strengthened Data & Analytics offering will assist the firm to address growing global demand for data risk management and data analytics support in an environment of rapid regulatory change in areas such as privacy, data protection, increasing regulatory investigations and heightened focus on remediation and artificial intelligence (AI).

Matthew Dunn
Matthew has 20 years of experience in infrastructure and property, specialising in complex infrastructure, Public-Private Partnerships and private financing. He has deep expertise on the NSW Government's capital programme, where he has played a key role in enhancing the productive capacity of the NSW economy through large-scale infrastructure projects and associated transactions. Before joining Ashurst, he held a number of senior executive roles across the NSW Government, most recently leading Transport for NSW's Infrastructure and Project Finance team.

Cameron Jaggers
Cameron has over 20 years of portfolio, project management design and assurance, and auditing and risk management experience across the health, rail, road, and energy sectors. He has worked on several nation building programmes and projects, including for the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority in Victoria, Cross River Rail, Transport and Main Roads, nbn, NSW Energy Corporation, Snowy Hydro 2.0, Sydney Metro, and Queensland Rail. Cameron joins from PwC, where he was an Integrated Infrastructure partner.

Ben Rooke
Ben is experienced in delivering major investment cases, complex large-scale property and infrastructure transactions, and strategic infrastructure plans. Ben has held senior executive roles in NSW and Western Australian governments, and was previously an executive director for Commercial Transactions in the NSW Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade.

Sonia Haque-Vatcher
Sonia has over two decades of experience in large-scale technology transformation and risk management projects in the financial services, life sciences, consumer, and retail sectors. Before joining Ashurst, she was a senior executive at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) leading a global team of data and analytics professionals to deliver analytical and AI solutions for customers and internal teams.

Philip Hardy, Head of Ashurst Risk Advisory, Australia, said:
"We are pleased to welcome Matthew, Cameron, Ben and Sonia to Ashurst. Our strong team of experts in data and infrastructure will assist our clients in balancing compliance, technology, and sustainability challenges with strategic goals. Each partner's expertise in driving growth and transformation will also provide added leadership to our growing team."

Jamie Ng, Ashurst's Chief Client Officer and Global Divisional Leader for Consulting, added:
"Infrastructure and Data & Analytics have been strong areas of client demand since Ashurst established the Ashurst Risk Advisory business in 2020, as digitalisation, sustainability, increased scale of infrastructure projects and economic volatility give rise to greater regulatory scrutiny and demand for expertise-led models of legal-led risk and commercial advisory capabilities. Ashurst's clear focus on outpacing change for our clients has enabled us to grow our Risk Advisory practice. The launch of the Infrastructure, Places and Capital Projects Advisory offering and the appointment of four new partners reflects significant and ongoing shifts in development of our cities and the infrastructure supporting them. These new appointments further demonstrate our commitment to continue investing in the practice to support that growth."