Zahir Sheikh is the Partner in charge of Risk Advisory, Internal Audit and Forensic Services at BDO in East Africa. He was the Regional Partner responsible for Financial Advisory Services in KPMG in Eastern Africa, working primarily in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Due to the nature of services, he also worked in various countries such as Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Zambia, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.
Zahir has over 30 years of experience, 7 years in the UK and 24 years at KPMG East Africa. He established the first forensic practice in Kenya in 2000 and oversaw its growth to a team of 25 full-time forensic specialists in the East Africa region. Aditionally, Zahir has 11 years of commercial experience as a CEO where he managed a diverse range of companies in receivership as receiver manager.
As the Partner overseeing the Forensic Services business unit across the region, Zahir has been involved in managing large and complex investigations, providing expert testimony in court, testing and designing internal control systems, arbitrating disputes, providing proactive fraud management services, asset tracing, anti-money laundering, ethics and integrity building programmes, fraud surveys, training courses in fraud risk and corporate governance.
Zahir has advised under-performing businesses as well as lenders in restructuring and business turnaround, independent business reviews, strategy workshops, training on credit control, risk management, tracking assets, company monitoring and preparation of cash flow projections.
Zahir worked in the Audit business unit for 4 years and was responsible for the statutory audits of diverse sectors amongst them an oil refinery, banks, manufacturing, trading companies and NGOs.
Other areas of his expertise include institutional capacity building, development/AID related work, budgetary and financial systems design and implementation and financial audits.
EDUCATION
Zahir is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, ACFE. Zahir holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Cranfield University, UK and is also a Certified Public Accountant (Kenya) and a Certified Public Secretary (Kenya).