Grant Thornton Australia

I'm privileged to be joining the panel at the 2026 Ageing Australia VIC State Conference on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, discussing Building Strong and Sustainable Business Plans in Aged Care — alongside Amber Cartwright, Solomon Miller, and Roald Versteeg. For those interested, registration is available here: https://lnkd.in/g_tW9Svp Ageing Australia #AgeingAustraliaVICConf2026 I'd also like to share some recent collateral developed by the Grant Thornton Australia Health & Aged Care team on accommodation pricing across the sector, with significant contributions from our industry lead, Darrell Price: https://lnkd.in/gAeQBfS5

If you’re heading to NRF APAC 2026 in Singapore, Grant Thornton Australia will be hosting a closed‑door C‑suite lunch on Day 3 (4 June), and I’d be delighted to welcome some familiar faces and meet a few new ones. We’re bringing together a small group of senior retail leaders for an honest, practical conversation about AI in retail. There’s plenty of noise in the market, so this session will focus on what’s genuinely creating value today and where leaders are seeing real traction. I’m thrilled that Kirsten Ridgway will be facilitating a panel with Alison Evans (Telegram Group), Bevan Morris (David Jones) and Tay Pappas GAICD (Untapped Consulting) - an exceptional group with deep, hands‑on experience. If you’ll be at NRF APAC and would like to join us, feel free to reach out or request an invitation here: https://lnkd.in/gVE8qwH7 #NRFAPAC2026 #Retail #Singapore #AI #Consulting

Privileged to be a panellist at the 2026 Ageing Australia WA State Conference (Thur 4 June 2026) alongside Tom Symondson , Roulé Jones , Penny Fielding and Andrew Dunjey - where we unpack 'How the sector is tracking under the New Aged Care Act'. For those interested please register here to join us https://lnkd.in/gsZARvwT Ageing Australia #AgeingAustraliaWAConf2026 Also taking the opportunity to share some collateral that has been developed by the Grant Thornton Australia health & aged care team on accommodation pricing in the aged care sector with a lot of the credit going to our leader Darrell Price https://lnkd.in/gAeQBfS5

The decision by our board to recommend a merger with the US-led Grant Thornton Advisors platform has generated a valuable discussion on the relative merits of different ownership structures in professional services. While the benefits of the conventional partnership model are well ventilated, it has three key limitations that are too rarely openly discussed. First, it’s structurally hard to reward talented people yet to reach the partner threshold. Some of the most talented people in our profession leave before they get there, not because they aren't good enough, but because the model can't move fast enough to deliver the rewards they could achieve elsewhere. Should our partners approve this transaction, we’ll have total flexibility to reward our most talented people when they’re ready. Second, while accountants, tax specialists, management consultants, advisers and auditors will always remain at the very centre of what we do, the best professional services firms are realising that in an increasingly AI-enabled world, they will need a broader spectrum of talented people, the very best of whom may be reluctant to join a firm operating under a conventional partnership model. Third, a lot is made of a potential loss of control when a firm like ours transacts. But I think we need to have a more nuanced conversation of what control actually means. What seems to attract less focus is the fact that with a concentration of control, comes a concentration of ownership, and therefore a concentration of risk. And that risk is especially concentrated, and your ambition significantly constrained, when you are trying to transform your business off an Australian balance sheet in the midst of a global technology revolution. I'd rather we be ambitious now than reactive later. Our partners will be early shareholders in a diversified and global platform pioneering a new approach to professional services worldwide, and we’ll have hugely accelerated access to world-class technologies and growth capital during a period when our profession will be transformed. We're choosing to help lead that transformation and to share more meaningfully in the upside, rather than wake up in the 2030s to a market that has moved on without us. Grant Thornton Australia

I am speaking at Grant Thornton Australia 's Financial Services Virtual Conference 2026 on AI governance: risk, oversight and implementation alongside Daniel Farthing . We will be talking about how existing prudential, privacy and governance obligations apply to AI, and where the key risks sit across data, models and third-party arrangements. We’ll consider what boards and executives should be thinking about before, during and after adoption, with practical lessons from industry and implementation. Link to sign up in the comment below.