About Cascade Asia

Our work starts in the data and goes past where it runs out.

We produce decision-grade intelligence for high-stakes decisions in Southeast Asia, combining field verification, local-language research, corporate intelligence, and human judgment where databases and desktop research stop.

A government records office in Taunggyi, Myanmar
Field photograph · Taunggyi, Myanmar 2026
Why we exist

The hardest questions live past the last datapoint.

Southeast Asia rewards people who know the difference between what is filed and what is true. Registries are incomplete, control is often arranged to be hard to read, and the most consequential facts about a company or a counterparty rarely sit in a database an outside team can search.

Cascade Asia was built to work in exactly that space, verifying on the ground what desktop research can only assume, in the languages and contexts of the markets we cover.

Our standard is decision-grade: intelligence sound enough to base a consequential decision on, with the evidence and the confidence shown plainly alongside it.


Who we are

A senior core, and a network that reaches further.

Cascade Asia is built around a senior in-house core, its reach extended by a vetted network of specialists across Southeast Asia. Every engagement is led by a principal and handled by the people named here. The network behind them is held to the same standards of vetting, security, and discretion we apply to ourselves — the confidentiality of your work depends on it.

Brian Sheley

Founder & Managing Director

More than twenty years on the political economy of Asia, the last fourteen leading investigative due diligence and field intelligence across the region. He founded Cascade Asia in 2012 and leads its intelligence products; before that, he spent four years with APCO Worldwide across Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Seattle, advising Fortune 100 and government clients. He holds a master’s in International Economics and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and works in Thai and Indonesian.

Huong Do

Associate Director

An associate director with nine years in corporate intelligence, Huong pairs investigative and reputational due diligence with a decade of frontline commercial experience. Before intelligence work she ran procurement and contract management on major energy and infrastructure projects, including large offshore and power-plant developments, which grounds her read on how deals, vendors, and counterparties actually behave. She holds a bachelor’s in Commerce from RMIT University and works in Vietnamese and English, with conversational Chinese.

Emma Lin

Senior Lead Analyst

A senior lead analyst with a background in data and business intelligence, Emma works on reputation analysis and risk monitoring, combining data-led research with close review of corporate records, legal contracts, patents, and technical filings to identify risk signals, map relationships, and test commercial narratives. Before Cascade, she served major international clients across finance, technology, and consulting at a leading European firm. She holds a master’s in Computer Engineering and works in Chinese and English.

Adrian Din

Project Manager

A project manager with a decade in corporate intelligence, Adrian runs Cascade’s confidential investigations end to end, coordinating country teams across the region and validating findings before they reach a client. He edits the intelligence those teams produce, including their field and human-source reporting, and tests it against his own research: news media, public records, sanctions screening, satellite imagery, and reverse image search. He holds a bachelor’s in War Studies from King’s College London and works in Burmese, Thai, and English.

Khairunnisa Andini

Analyst

An analyst in corporate due diligence and strategic research, Khairunnisa assesses the political, regulatory, and reputational risks shaping operating environments across Southeast Asia. She came to the work through verification, first as a policy analyst on Indonesian politics and economic policy, then verifying misinformation around national elections. Her analysis has appeared in Kompas, The Jakarta Post, and CNBC Indonesia. She holds a bachelor’s in International Relations from Universitas Diponegoro and works in Indonesian and English.

Featured in
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How we think about the work

Principles, not slogans.

Evidence over assertion

Every finding traces to a source you can see, graded for how much weight it can bear. We show the work rather than ask for trust.

Judgment over automation

Tools organise evidence; people interpret it. A human analyst is accountable for what each conclusion means and where it stops.

Honesty over completeness

When the picture is incomplete, we say so. A clear “unverified” is worth more than a confident guess.

Specific over sweeping

We cover the markets we can actually verify in, and we are precise about where that coverage ends.

Discretion as default

Engagements are confidential, and the people who make field work possible are protected without exception.

Calm over alarm

We are not in the business of manufacturing fear. We establish what is true and let the facts carry the weight.


Where we work

Southeast Asia, with selective reach beyond it.

Our coverage reflects established field capability and language depth, not a map we’d like to claim. Where a matter reaches further, we scope it case by case and are explicit about the limits.

Core field coverage
Indonesia
Vietnam
Thailand
Philippines
Malaysia
Singapore
Cambodia
Myanmar
Selective support

East Asia and South Asia — scoped case by case


What we do not claim

Plain about our limits.

  • We are not a private investigations shop.We produce evidence-led intelligence, within the law and within ethical limits.
  • We do not trade in fear.No manufactured alarm and no predictive bravado, just verified facts, plainly stated.
  • We do not claim coverage we cannot deliver.Our map is the markets we can verify in, and we name the edges.
  • We do not promise certainty.Every finding carries a confidence level, and some questions resolve only to “unverified.”

Work with us.

If you have a decision that turns on something a database can’t settle, start with a confidential briefing.