Grant Thornton adds to AML capabilities through pair of senior recruits

Grant Thornton has been building up its AML/CTF capabilities in recent months with the arrival of Martin Stone and Annelies Homersham.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws and frameworks are among the most complex and rapidly evolving areas of financial regulation and compliance, requiring specialist skills and knowledge.

Thus, Grant Thornton has significantly boosted its expertise through the addition of experienced practitioner Martin Stone as a partner in Melbourne, together with office colleague and specialist adviser Annelies Homersham as a principal.

“With limited AML experts nationally, we’re proud to have Martin and Annelies join the highly experienced and knowledgeable advisors in our team,” stated Jarrod Lean, who was appointed national risk consulting leader in 2023. “We’re committed to building our AML capability in-house to strengthen the breadth and depth of skills and expertise within the market.”

Martin Stone brings two decades worth of risk and compliance experience to the firm, including time at ANZ as head of financial crime and MLRO (money laundering reporting officer) for the bank’s Australian division. Prior to that, he served in senior financial crime roles with an AML focus at NAB, AMP, and AXA, before most recently going out on his own.

“Martin has been providing specialist AML/CTF consultancy services since 2022, and has supported businesses in responding to formal AUSTRAC investigations,” the firm states. “He has a demonstrable history of partnering with business functions and executives to ensure risk and control environments are understood and appropriate for the business, as well as aligned to the risks faced.”

Stone is not unfamiliar with Grant Thornton, having previously worked closely with AML practice leader and partner Neil Jeans (Katherine Shamai is also a partner in the team, joining from PwC in 2016), who sold his boutique financial crime advisory Initialism to the firm in 2022.

Annelies Homersham joins Grant Thornton as a principal in Melbourne after the past four years at PayPal, where she guided the payments giant through an investigation by regulator AUSTRAC while strengthening governance controls. Before that, she was a director at Deloitte, and earlier spent time in a variety of business and IT roles dating back 20 years, including at Medibank Private and ANZ.

The pair’s appointments come amid the country’s latest regulatory update, which is expected to present considerable challenges for enterprise. Homersham said, “With the Tranche 2 AML/CTF reforms set to reshape Australia’s financial crime landscape, it’s a critical time for organisations to strengthen their compliance frameworks and adapt to evolving regulatory requirements.”