Ian Renwood leads Grant Thornton's technology advisory unit
Shortly after promoting four to partner, Grant Thornton has welcomed a new partner to its Advisory ranks. Consulting veteran Ian Renwood has been brought on board to lead the firm’s Technology Advisory offering in Sydney.
Renwood joines from KPMG, which he served briefly, having transferred to the Big Four accounting and consulting as part of KPMG’s acquisition of Ferrier Hodgson. In May this year, KPMG bought Ferrier Hodgson's operations located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, in a deal which rocked Australia’s restructuring scene and was advised on by M&A advisors from among others Jones Day and Norton Rose Fulbright.
While Ferrier Hodgson was mainly a turnaround and financial advisory business, the Australian consultancy had a management consulting arm. Renwood sat in this division, and was its head of its Digital Transformation wing. Previously, he spent 20 years as a consultant, holding leadership roles at IBM Business Services (Digital Transformation leader for Australia and New Zealand), operations consultancy Alexander Proudfoot (Head of Asia Pacific region) and Arthur Andersen Consulting (currently Accenture).
Throughout his career, he has led several digital transformation programmes in Australia, Asia and beyond, with a focus on organisations in the financial services industry. He also has gained extensive experience with emerging technologies such as cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security, blockchain, open banking, robotics process automation and cognitive computing.
Now at Grant Thornton, Renwood leads a team of 15 (experienced) technology consultants supporting the firm’s clients in the start-up, mid-sized, ASX Top 100 and government sectors. The arm – Technology Advisory – helps client navigate the complexities of digital transformation, including defining digital strategies and operating models, execution of digital projects and selection as well as deployment of systems. Technology Advisory is part of Grant Thornton’s consulting division, which comprises circa 150 consultants and digital experts.
“We are working with a number of clients that are leading in the digital transformation space, or are looking to embrace digital disruption to their advantage. Ian’s expertise in this area – not only in terms of tech development and application, but also commercialisation and business transformation – is highly sought after, and we’re pleased that Ian will be leading our technology offering for Grant Thornton in Sydney,” said Michael Pittendrigh, who leads Grant Thornton Consulting in Australia.
Renwood, who earlier in his career served the Royal Australian Navy, looks forward to his new role, stating “I’m excited to connect our team and our clients to embrace and harness technology to create engaging experiences, understand their data better, and drive commercial outcomes.”
Alongside his role at Grant Thornton, Renwood advises on the Boards of two start-ups, AlphaVista Financial Services and Netlinkz, and is a lead mentor at Stone & Chalk.
