Anthropic appoints Theo Hourmouzis to head the Australia and New Zealand region

US-based AI firm Anthropic has appointed Theo Hourmouzis as its first general manager for Australia and New Zealand, marking its official expansion into the region with a new office in Sydney, as reported by the Sydney morning herald. 

Hourmouzis joins from Snowflake and brings nearly three decades of experience in enterprise technology, including roles at Cohesity and Sysdig. He will lead local operations, build partnerships and engage with customers as Anthropic scales its presence.

The expansion comes as competition intensifies between major AI players including OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft, while organisations increasingly assess AI’s impact on jobs and productivity.

“Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are thinking carefully about how to adopt AI, and they want partners who take safety and rigour as seriously as they take the opportunity,” Hourmouzis said. “The organisations that do best with AI will be the ones that pair ambition with discipline.”

The appointment follows a busy period for Anthropic in Australia. CEO Dario Amodei recently met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sign a memorandum of understanding under the country’s National AI Plan, focusing on AI safety and data sharing.

Anthropic’s chatbot Claude is already widely used in Australia, with the country ranking among its top global markets. The company has also partnered with local organisations including Commonwealth Bank, Quantium, Australian National University and Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

Recent collaborations with Canva and Xero highlight Anthropic’s push into enterprise tools, integrating its AI assistant across platforms.

With global revenue surging and adoption growing rapidly, the move signals Anthropic’s intent to compete more aggressively in enterprise AI, particularly as businesses seek measurable returns from AI investments.