Clara Lai Shu-Lin - Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead)

Q: Where is Clara based?

Clara is based in London, United Kingdom .

Q: What languages does Clara speak?

Clara speaks the following languages: English (Native), Chinese (Advanced), Malay (Intermediate) .

Q: How many years of experience does Clara have?

Clara has at least 8 years of experience. During this time, Clara has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 1 company . The average length of individual experience is 2 years . Note that Clara may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Clara's latest experience?

Clara's most recent position is Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead) at Grant Thornton Consulting .

Q: What companies has Clara worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Clara has worked for Grant Thornton Consulting .

Q: Which industries is Clara most experienced in?

Clara is most experienced in industries like Professional Services and Banking and Finance .

Q: Which business areas is Clara most experienced in?

Clara is most experienced in business areas like Finance , Accounting , Investments, and M&A & Venture Capital . Clara also has some experience in Information Technology (IT) , Quality Assurance (QA) , and Research and Development (R&D) .

Q: Which industries has Clara worked in recently?

Clara has recently worked in industries like Professional Services and Banking and Finance .

Q: Which business areas has Clara worked in recently?

Clara has recently worked in business areas like Finance , Accounting , and Information Technology (IT) .

Recommended expert

London, United Kingdom

Experience

Jan 2024 - Present

2 years 2 months

London, United Kingdom

Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead)

Grant Thornton Consulting

Lead development of AI-assisted financial analysis capabilities for firm-wide deployment: architected LLM-powered document review system processing annual reports, bank covenants, credit agreements, and M&A documentation; built evaluation framework measuring accuracy, completeness, and risk flag consistency across 100+ validation documents
Built production RAG pipeline (Python + LangChain + FAISS) over 500+ earnings calls and SEC filings with custom prompt templates and systematic evaluation harness; implemented answer quality metrics (relevance scoring, factual grounding checks, hallucination detection); achieved 25% improvement in answer quality versus baseline (measured via expert human ratings, n=200 queries, Cohen's kappa=0.78)
Designed and executed systematic evaluation protocols for AI-generated financial models: created test dataset of 50+ DCF scenarios with validated ground truth outcomes, developed evaluation rubrics assessing technical accuracy and IFRS compliance, identified systematic failure modes (18% error rate in WACC calculations, 23% in revenue projections), provided structured feedback for model improvement
Developed prompt engineering methodology and template library (30+ templates) for financial analysis tasks including covenant compliance checking, financial statement analysis, and risk assessment; reduced human review time by 45% while maintaining 95%+ accuracy (validated across 100+ documents)
Early adopter and tester for Claude Excel: systematically evaluated financial modeling capabilities, documented edge cases and failure modes, contributed evaluation datasets and test scenarios, collaborated with product team on capability improvements and quality assurance protocols
Managed cross-functional teams of 5-10 consultants; designed quality assurance frameworks and evaluation rubrics that reduced error rates by 30% and revision cycles by 20%; implemented systematic peer review and feedback protocols
Led high-value valuation engagements leveraging finance expertise: $270M REIT (IFRS 13 fair value), $180M palm oil company (expert witness, shareholder dispute), $250M manufacturing fairness opinion (comprehensive DCF and comps analysis)

Jul 2022 - Dec 2023

1 year 6 months

London, United Kingdom

Manager - Transactions & Valuation

Grant Thornton Consulting

Executed buy-side financial due diligence for $150M+ transactions; led Quality of Earnings analyses, purchase price allocations (IFRS 3), and financial modeling with scenario analysis; identified $1.2M+ in working capital optimization opportunities
Directed market research and competitive analysis combining financial, operational, and qualitative data; delivered board-ready investment memos for multinational clients and listed companies

Jan 2021 - Jun 2022

1 year 6 months

London, United Kingdom

Senior Consultant - Transactions & Valuation

Grant Thornton Consulting

Led valuation assignments totaling $300M+ enterprise value using DCF, trading multiples, and sum-of-the-parts methodologies (IAS 36, IFRS 13)
Supported forensic investigations applying statistical pattern recognition and anomaly detection

Jan 2018 - Dec 2020

3 years

London, United Kingdom

Consultant / Associate Consultant - Transactions & Valuation

Grant Thornton Consulting

Conducted financial modeling for M&A transactions
Performed IFRS conversion projects for pre-IPO readiness
Built Excel automation tools (VBA) for data processing and analysis

Industries Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.

Experienced in Professional Services (8 years) and Banking and Finance (2 years).

Professional Services

Banking and Finance

Business Areas Experience

The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.

Experienced in Finance (8 years), Accounting (6 years), Investments and M&A (3 years), Information Technology (2 years), Quality Assurance (2 years), and Research and Development (1.5 years).

Finance

Accounting

Investments and M&A

Information Technology

Quality Assurance

Research and Development

Summary

Finance professional (7 years corporate finance, audit) transitioning to AI evaluation and LLM quality assurance. Currently leading AI capabilities development for Grant Thornton's financial modeling practice, building systematic evaluation frameworks for model-generated valuations, due diligence outputs, and IFRS interpretations. Early adopter and tester for Claude Excel. Deep finance domain expertise across $1bn+ in M&A transactions, valuations, and expert witness assignments enables rigorous evaluation of AI outputs in financial contexts. Proven track record designing quality assurance protocols, managing cross-functional teams, and translating complex analyses into actionable insights. Incoming PhD candidate (2026) researching sustainable finance and carbon markets.

Skills

Ai/ml Evaluation & Quality Assurance:

Llm Evaluation Framework Design
Rag Pipeline Development (Langchain, Faiss, Chroma)
Prompt Engineering & Templating
Model Output Validation & Ground Truth Testing
Reasoning Quality Assessment
Evaluation Metrics Design (Accuracy, Relevance, Hallucination Detection)
Inter-rater Reliability Analysis
A/b Testing Methodologies
Openai/claude Apis
Embeddings & Vector Stores
Guardrails Implementation

Programming & Data Analysis:

Python (Pandas, Numpy, Transformers, Scikit-learn, Spacy)
Sql
Power Bi
Advanced Excel (Vba, Power Query Etl)
Jupyter
Git
Statistical Analysis
Large Dataset Processing (50,000+ Rows)
Data Quality Assessment

Finance Domain Expertise:

Valuation (Dcf, Trading/transaction Comps, Sotp, Wacc)
Financial Modeling (3-statement, Lbo, Project Finance, Scenario/sensitivity)
Quality Of Earnings Analysis
Ebitda Normalization
Due Diligence (Buy-side/sell-side)
Ifrs/us Gaap/malaysian Cpa Standards
Expert Witness & Forensic Analysis
M&a Transaction Execution

Tools & Platforms:

Bloomberg
Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters)
Virtual Data Rooms
Claude Excel
Monte Carlo Simulation
Statistical Software

Languages

English

Native

Chinese

Advanced

Malay

Intermediate

Education

Jan 2026 - Present

Bayes Business School, London

PhD, Sustainable Finance & Carbon Markets · Finance · London, United Kingdom

Sep 2022 - Sep 2023

Alliance Manchester Business School

MBA (Distinction) · Manchester, United Kingdom

Certifications & licenses

ICAEW Sustainability Certificate

ICVS

ACA

Profile

Created

November 2025

Last Update

December 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have questions? Here you can find further information.

Where is Clara based?

Clara is based in London, United Kingdom.

What languages does Clara speak?

Clara speaks the following languages: English (Native), Chinese (Advanced), Malay (Intermediate).

How many years of experience does Clara have?

Clara has at least 8 years of experience. During this time, Clara has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 1 company. The average length of individual experience is 2 years. Note that Clara may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Clara be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Clara would be well-suited for roles such as: Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead), Manager - Transactions & Valuation, Senior Consultant - Transactions & Valuation.

What is Clara's latest experience?

Clara's most recent position is Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead) at Grant Thornton Consulting.

What companies has Clara worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Clara has worked for Grant Thornton Consulting.

Which industries is Clara most experienced in?

Clara is most experienced in industries like Professional Services and Banking and Finance.

Which business areas is Clara most experienced in?

Clara is most experienced in business areas like Finance, Accounting, Investments, and M&A & Venture Capital. Clara also has some experience in Information Technology (IT), Quality Assurance (QA), and Research and Development (R&D).

Which industries has Clara worked in recently?

Clara has recently worked in industries like Professional Services and Banking and Finance.

Which business areas has Clara worked in recently?

Clara has recently worked in business areas like Finance, Accounting, and Information Technology (IT).

What is Clara's education?

Clara holds a Doctorate in Finance from Bayes Business School, London and a Master from Alliance Manchester Business School.

Does Clara have any certificates?

Clara has 3 certificates. These include: ICAEW Sustainability Certificate, ICVS, and ACA.

What is the availability of Clara?

Clara is immediately available full-time for suitable projects.

What is the rate of Clara?

Clara's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.