Monday, 14 November 2022

KordaMentha expands its Financial Crime team in Sydney.

KordaMentha is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Storey as a Partner and Grace Mason as Executive Director in the firm’s expanding Financial Crime practice.

The appointments follow the recent merger between KordaMentha and one of Australia’s most experienced and respected financial crime advisory firms, Murray Waldren Consulting.

The recent hires, combined with the joining of KordaMentha and Murray Waldren, demonstrate achievement of the firm’s growth and diversification strategy, as client demand for financial crime services increases.

With more than 30 years’ experience across the financial services and consulting industries, Mr Storey has had a number of senior roles developing anti-money laundering (AML) policies and processes in banking, private equity and structured product, and honing his management capabilities by building market-leading teams in consulting, financial services and manufacturing.

Boosting KordaMentha’s financial crime offering, Mr Storey has worked with AML regulators in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong to drive industry-wide improvements in the prevention of financial crime in major banks and investment managers, including CBA, Westpac, NAB and ANZ.

Ms Mason brings with her a wealth of experience in financial crime; navigating complexity in AML/CTF regulatory, intelligence and policy environments. She is an experienced executive who will provide clarity and focus to improve performance and function across a vast array of KordaMentha’s advisory offerings, including AML and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) regulation, technology and training and risk strategy.

Ms Mason has worked across operations, governance and industry throughout ASEAN, Europe and South Africa.

KordaMentha Financial Crime Partner Alice Saveneh-Murray said Mr Storey’s appointment strengthened the firm’s position as a leader in financial crime advisory. “Demand for anti-money laundering advisory services is undoubtedly growing as enforcement action and regulatory intervention for breaches of financial crime legislation have increased the need for clients to proactively manage their regulatory risk. Richard is a wonderful addition to our team and will become a real asset for our clients and their financial crime needs,” she said.

Partner Rachel Waldren said Ms Mason’s industry experience would provide great benefit for KordaMentha’s clients. “Grace’s deep experience advising leading organisations on adhering to AML and CTF regulations while delivering client-centric strategies around new and emerging technologies is invaluable. We’re excited that she’s chosen to join us at KordaMentha to help us grow our offer in this very dynamic market.”

Mr Storey joins KordaMentha from EY, where he was Associate Partner in the financial services risk management team, focusing on AML compliance consulting projects. In this role, Mr Storey advised retail, commercial and institutional banking teams on AML data utilisation in customer screening.

Prior to EY, Mr Storey was at Refinitiv (previously the finance and risk business of Thomson Reuters), where he was Director of AML compliance and Head of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Onboarding.

Mr Storey is a certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University, a Diploma of Export Management from the Australian Institute of Export, and a Diploma of Financial Services from Kaplan Professional Education.

Ms Mason joins the firm from AUSTRAC where she worked for more than 15 years, most recently as Director of Intelligence Capabilities. AUSTRAC is Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing regulator and financial intelligence unit, and Ms Mason’s many years detecting, deterring and disrupting criminal abuse of the financial system will be invaluable to KordaMentha’s clients.

Ms Mason is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, a Diploma of Education from UNSW, and a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management & Public Administration from Flinders University.

Both of KordaMentha’s new appointments will be based in the firm’s Sydney office.

Media enquiries

Tim Fogarty, The Civic Partnership | [email protected] | 0400 179 075