On April 27, 2026, Anthropic announced that Theo Hourmouzis will join the company as General Manager for Australia and New Zealand and that it has officially opened a Sydney office. Hourmouzis will lead the local team and develop a regional strategy focused on deploying Claude models into Australian and New Zealand organisations' core work.
Experience and role
Theo Hourmouzis brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in the Asia Pacific technology sector. He most recently served at Snowflake as Senior Vice President for Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN, where he helped enterprise and public sector customers move AI from experimentation to business impact across industries including financial services, retail, aviation and government. At Anthropic, Hourmouzis will deepen customer relationships and shape long‑term local operations.
On the appointment Hourmouzis said: “Organizations across Australia and New Zealand are thinking carefully about how to adopt AI, and they want partners who take safety and rigor as seriously as they take the opportunity. That's what drew me to Anthropic. I've spent my career working with businesses and governments across this region, and the organizations that do best with AI will be the ones that pair ambition with discipline.”
Partnerships and research collaborations
Anthropic said its growing regional activities will strengthen ties with commercial customers such as Commonwealth Bank and Quantium, and with AI for Science research partners including Australian National University, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Curtin University. The company also referenced commitments under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) it recently signed with the Australian government.
Chris Ciauri, Anthropic Managing Director of International, commented: “Theo's appointment reflects the conviction we share with the Australian government that AI can drive economic growth when it’s developed and deployed responsibly. He’s spent decades helping organisations adopt new technology, and he’ll build the team and partnerships we need to support our customers across Australia and New Zealand for the long term.”
New local partnerships and nonprofit work
Anthropic highlighted recent platform collaborations with Canva and Xero. The Canva partnership will bring Canva Design Engine and Visual Suite capabilities into Claude Design by Anthropic Labs, and a multi‑year agreement with Xero will integrate Claude’s AI with Xero’s financial data and tools.
In the nonprofit sector, Anthropic is working with YMCA South Australia as a Claude for Nonprofits partner. YMCA South Australia operates across more than 65 community locations with around 1,250 staff. Using Claude, YMCA SA has built custom AI skills that convert complex operational data into actionable insights, reduced branded content production from hours to minutes, and brought technical work in‑house that previously required external contractors.
Devan Seamans, Head of Marketing & Technology at YMCA South Australia, said: “The future for us is about Claude becoming embedded infrastructure, a core part of how we run the organisation. That requires a platform with the enterprise governance and controls to match the obligations of a large not‑for‑profit. We want to be a leader in the Australian NFP space with AI adoption, and Anthropic's approach gives us the confidence to pursue that.”
Regional presence
The Sydney office follows Anthropic’s recent openings in Tokyo and Bengaluru and precedes a planned launch in Seoul, reflecting the company’s strategy to be closer to customers across the region. For information about current job opportunities in the Sydney office, Anthropic directs interested candidates to anthropic.com/careers.
