Practice
Risk & Internal Audit
Risk advisory has become the fastest-growing flagship practice inside accounting firms, and the talent to lead it is the scarcest resource in the market. CharteredPartners conducts retained search for the partners and principals who build and run internal audit, GRC, cyber-risk, resilience and regulatory practices across APAC, Dubai and London.
The talent market
Risk advisory is now the growth engine of the modern accounting firm. As assurance fees compress and audit independence rules cap the consulting a firm can sell to its audit clients, the Big Four, mid-tier networks (BDO, Grant Thornton, RSM, Crowe, Forvis Mazars) and independents have all repositioned risk advisory as a flagship, partner-led profit centre. The Asia Pacific risk management consulting market was valued at roughly USD 26.1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to grow at about 9.5% a year through 2031, with Southeast Asia compounding even faster at around 10.5% [1].
Demand is now structural rather than cyclical. Three forces converge on the same scarce partner: board-level scrutiny of internal audit and controls; a global cyber-risk talent gap that APAC feels most acutely; and a wave of operational-resilience and financial-crime regulation (DORA, MAS guidelines, FATF-driven AML reform) that turns compliance into a multi-year remediation programme. Each pushes firms to hire credentialled, client-facing leaders who can both win mandates and stand in front of an audit committee.
The defining constraint is people, not pipeline. The 2025 ISC2 study put the global cyber workforce gap at 4.8 million, with APAC carrying the largest regional shortfall at roughly 3.4 million unfilled roles [2]. In internal audit, the Certified Internal Auditor credential commands a 37 to 50 percent pay premium over non-certified peers [5]. A partner who combines a recognised credential, a portfolio of named relationships and a defensible specialism is a genuinely rare asset, and counter-offers are aggressive.
That scarcity is precisely why risk-advisory leadership hires belong in retained search. These are confidential, reputation-sensitive moves, frequently with a following of managers and a book of clients attached. CharteredPartners runs a mapped, off-market process across Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dubai and London, assessing not just technical depth but the chargeable network, regulatory standing and team that move with the hire.
Risk & Internal Audit disciplines
Internal Audit & Controls
We place the partners and directors who lead co-sourced and outsourced internal audit, design and test controls, and run SOX and equivalent advisory across APAC, Dubai and London.
Explore →Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)
We place the leaders who build enterprise risk frameworks, design governance structures and stand up compliance programmes for accounting firms and their clients across APAC, Dubai and London.
Explore →Cyber, Technology & Data Risk
We place the cyber, technology-risk and IT-audit leaders accounting firms compete hardest to hire, into the scarcest and highest-premium specialism in risk advisory across APAC, Dubai and London.
Explore →Business Resilience
We place the leaders who design business continuity, operational resilience and crisis-management capabilities, an advisory area regulation has turned from optional to mandatory across APAC, Dubai and London.
Explore →Regulatory & Compliance Advisory
We place the financial-services regulation, licensing and remediation leaders riding a sustained enforcement-driven hiring wave across Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dubai and London.
Explore →