ACA Group grows US footprint with Durham office

ACA Group, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) consultancy focusing on the financial services industry, has opened its sixth US office with the launch of a new location in Durham, North Carolina.

Officially opened on May 4, the Durham office serves as ACA’s innovation and technology center, housing a growing team of engineers, data scientists, and product developers.

The office will focus on developing the firm’s compliance technology offerings, including the ComplianceAlpha platform. Beyond research and development, the Durham office will also serve as home base for managed services, advisory, and distribution practice professionals in the region.

“We chose Durham for all of the reasons this region has become a destination for technology – the research universities, the growing talent base, the quality of life – and we’re already so encouraged by what we’ve built that we expect to expand our footprint here,” said Tucker Nance, partner at ACA Group.

ACA says the new Durham office continues a strategy of investing in US operational infrastructure, and follows the 2014 establishment of a Pittsburgh office.

The New York-headquartered firm plans to continue hiring in Durham over the coming year as part of a broader investment in technology talent.

“We need people who understand not just technology, but the business problems we’re solving for our clients – people who wake up thinking about how to make the product better,” said Jody Kochansky, head of product and engineering at ACA Group. “That kind of ownership and curiosity is what we’re building in Durham, and it’s already exceeding our expectations.”

ACA is the GRC consulting platform of Genstar Capital, which acquired and merged the New York-based company with London-based Foreside in 2021. ACA has 1,400 employees across 10 offices in the US, UK, UAE, and India advising financial services clients on compliance, AML and finance crimes, ESG, cybersecurity, investment performance, and distribution.