Panella joins Prescient from New York-based K2 Intelligence and will operate in the firm’s Investigations Practice, which is led by Patrick Murphy, a 27 year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who is based in the firm’s Chicago Headquarters.


Before joining Prescient, Rob served as a Managing Director for K2 Intelligence and served clients in the Investigations & Disputes, Private Client Services, and Cyber Defense practices. While there, he oversaw a wide variety of complex risk management engagements involving corporate investigations, due diligence, corporate threat monitoring, cyber security, executive protection, and travel intelligence. Prior to joining K2 in 2014, Rob served as a Managing Director and Head of the Investigations and Intelligence departments at Thacher Associates, LLC.

Prescient’s presence in New York, and the East Coast generally, will continue to grow in the coming weeks, with hiring already underway within the firm’s Investigations and Cyber practices. “New York is a critical market for the firm, and the addition of Rob to our Investigations Practice will help expand our footprint and enhance our capabilities, especially around investigations, executive protection, travel intelligence, and business intelligence,” said firm President, Jack McKenna.

Rob’s expertise and problem-solving capabilities have allowed him to benefit various clients, to include international financial institutions, law firms, professional sports organizations and athletes, large corporations and their executives, and high net worth / high-profile individuals and their families.

Prior to entering the private sector, Rob spent 20 years at the U.S Department of Labor, primarily with the Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, Office of Inspector General (OIG). He most recently served as the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) for the New York Region, the agency’s largest, where he oversaw all operations throughout New York, New Jersey, and New England, with a focus on organized crime, labor racketeering schemes, and complex financial crimes. Prior to this role, Rob served as SAC for the Washington Region, where he oversaw all operations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

Earlier in his career as a Special Agent in the New York office, Rob helped found the Federal Construction Fraud Task Force, which targeted corruption and organized crime control in New York’s construction industry. Immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks, he was a World Trade Center responder and one of the agency’s lead representatives to the FBI’s PENTTBOM Task Force focusing on the cleanup and investigative efforts at Ground Zero. Rob has twice received the U.S. Secretary of Labor’s Valor Award and has also received awards for his investigative achievements from the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, the Inspector General, and the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

About Prescient

Prescient’s Due Diligence, Investigations, Cyber, and Intelligence Practices help Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and financial institutions mitigate risk and uncover mission-critical information. Headquartered in Chicago, IL with offices in McLean, VA, and Dublin, Ireland, Prescient’s team of former military personnel, intelligence officers, law enforcement agents, and corporate investigators boasts multiple in-house foreign languages and decades of experience conducting due diligence, corporate investigations, and intelligence collection operations in over 110 countries.