Clara (Shu-lin) L.
Senior Manager - Transactions & Valuation (AI Capabilities Lead)
Experience
Jan 2024 - Present
2 yearsLondon, 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 monthsLondon, 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 monthsLondon, 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 yearsLondon, 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
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
NativeChinese
AdvancedMalay
IntermediateEducation
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
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