Grant Thornton adds senior leadership experience to Australian team

Grant Thornton has recruited David Montani as its new national head of technical tax for private business & advisory, while former Big Four partner Mark Allsop recently joined as a senior advisor.

Based out of Perth, Montani crosses after more than a decade and a half in his most recent stint at Nexia, and altogether brings three decades worth of industry experience with a recent focus on specialist taxation training.

Montani, who holds a masters in taxation law from the University of New South Wales, kicked off his career in 1993 before spending two and a half decades across two stints at Nexia, most recently as national tax director, with time at Crowe in between. He is a prominent voice on Australian tax reform, with a book on the politics of the subject, Tax Wars, shortly due for release.

Montani will bring his expertise to his new role supporting Grant Thornton’s private business tax & advisory team, including, the firm says, through practical, deep-level tax training; providing tax technical support on significant client engagements; mentoring and developing its professionals as specialist tax advisors; and in assisting with quality and excellence protocols.

“I am thrilled to be welcoming such a well-respected advisor like David to our remarkable national team,” stated practice national managing partner Michael Pittendrigh. “He is a passionate professional who genuinely cares about delivering results and the broader advisory and consulting industry, and adds a depth and breadth of knowledge amongst our specialist advisors.”

Meanwhile, Grant Thornton has also added senior expertise to its management consulting division in the form of Mark Allsop, whose most recent role was national private market consulting leader at PwC. Prior to joining as a partner in 2022, he served in the same position and on the national executive of Deloitte Private, where he spent 17 years in total including twelve as a partner.

According to his company bio, Allsop also has extensive experience working with government entities and not-for-profits in addition to private business, in areas such as capacity-building in the design and delivery of large-scale industry development and transformation programs, strategic planning and business case development, and purpose-aligned commercial optimisation.

“The Australian and global professional services landscape has changed, both in terms of client need and who they select as delivery partners,” Allsop said in a post to LinkedIn. “After 20-plus years’ experience at Big Four firms, I’m excited to join Grant Thornton in their well established and highly regarded management consulting team and to work with the broader practice.”