Baron Zhao

Baron Zhao is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting. He is part of the Technology segment’s Asia leadership team. He is based in Hong Kong and also supports the Shanghai office.

Mr. Zhao has extensive experience in digital forensics, e-discovery and information governance, and he has advised clients in a wide range of large-scale and complex matters including cross-border litigations and disputes, digital investigations, security risk assessment, incident response and regulatory inquiries across multiple jurisdictions including United States, China and Hong Kong SAR.

Mr. Zhao has served clients across numerous sectors, including government, technology, manufacturing, gaming, financial services and life sciences.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Zhao held several leadership positions within a Big Four consulting firm in New York and Hong Kong, where he headed the firm’s U.S. e-discovery operations and later led the firm’s Hong Kong forensic technology services. He also served as the lead of the hosting services for another prominent digital forensics company in New York, where he managed a group of analysts in providing forensics, e-discovery and litigation support services.

Mr. Zhao holds an M.S. in Computer Science from New York University, and a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from University of Science and Technology Beijing. He is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Relevant Experience:

• Served as the leader of the Americas regional e-discovery operations consisting of three U.S.-based teams and one India-based global delivery team in managing processes including data processing, hosting, review support and production, covering all Americas e-discovery related engagements. Focused on the operational workflow development and efficiency implementation. Worked on more than 40 different-sized engagements during his tenure.
• Served a major U.S.-based multinational bank for more than seven years on the e-discovery service provider contract (representing more than USD70 million in business) to the bank’s legal discovery management group. Performed work in U.S., U.K., India and China. Served multi-year roles on the engagement including U.S. data operations lead, lead project manager of regulatory matters, and APAC regional engagement manager, supporting more than 50 engagements.
• Led a high-profile incident response engagement for a top U.S. tech company, managing teams in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai in performing forensic collections and incident response to successfully assist the client’s critical supply chain in resuming normal operations quickly.