Theo Hourmouzis has joined Anthropic as General Manager of Australia and New Zealand, representing the company's continued investment in the region. Hourmouzis is meeting with customers and partners alongside members of Anthropic's global executive team as the company officially opens its Sydney office.
Hourmouzis brings over 20 years of technology industry leadership experience across Asia Pacific. He previously served at Snowflake as Senior Vice President for Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN, where he helped enterprise and public sector organisations in financial services, retail, aviation and government transition AI from experimentation to real business impact. In his new role at Anthropic, he will lead the growing local team and develop a strategy centred on Australian and New Zealand customers, integrating Claude into their most critical workflows.
"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," said Theo Hourmouzis, Anthropic General Manager of Australia and New Zealand. "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."
Anthropic's expanding regional team will strengthen relationships with enterprise clients such as Commonwealth Bank and Quantium, as well as AI for Science research partners including Australian National University, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and Curtin University. The team will also work to deliver on commitments outlined in the memorandum of understanding Anthropic recently signed with the Australian government.
"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," said Chris Ciauri, Anthropic Managing Director of International. "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
Anthropic recently announced deep platform collaborations with Canva and Xero. Canva will integrate the Canva Design Engine and Visual Suite into the newly launched Claude Design by Anthropic Labs, while a multi-year partnership will embed Claude's AI directly into Xero-and bring Xero's financial data and tools into Claude.ai.
Anthropic is also partnering with YMCA South Australia through the Claude for Nonprofits program. YMCA operates across more than 65 community locations with approximately 1,250 staff. Using Claude, YMCA SA has developed 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.
"The future for us is about Claude becoming embedded infrastructure, a core part of how we run the organisation," said Devan Seamans, Head of Marketing & Technology, YMCA South Australia. "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."
The Sydney office follows Anthropic's recent office openings in Tokyo and Bengaluru, and comes just ahead of Seoul, bringing the company closer to its customers. For information about current career opportunities at the Sydney office, visit anthropic.com/careers.