ACA Group appoints Patrick Olson as CEO
ACA Group, a global governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) consultancy focusing on financial services clients, has hired Patrick Olson as chief executive officer. He is based in New York City.
Olson, a former executive at BlackRock, succeeds Shvetank Shah, who served as CEO since January 2020. Shah will continue at ACA as a senior advisor.
“ACA has grown significantly over the last 20 years to become the trusted provider of GRC solutions to more than 6,300 financial services firms. We are grateful for Shvetank’s contributions over the last three years to create a solid foundation that sets ACA up for future success,” said Tony Salewski, managing partner at Genstar Capital, which acquired ACA in 2022.
Olson brings 30 years of experience in financial services, investment banking, and asset management – including 17 years at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Olson served as global chief product officer, deputy global COO, and COO for the EMEA region.
Prior to BlackRock, he spent seven years at Merrill Lynch, where he was a managing director in the investment banking practice.
Olson has an MBA from Northwestern University, a JD from the University of Illinois Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“The global trends in outsourcing and GRC have allowed ACA to establish itself as the leading provider of GRC solutions to the financial services industry,” Olson said. “I look forward to working with the talented team at ACA and our dedicated partners at Genstar helping to drive our vision forward, deliver exceptional value, and shape the future of GRC.”
When Genstar bought New York-based ACA in 2021, it merged the firm with existing portfolio company Foreside, a provider of US distribution and compliance services to clients across the asset management industry. Following the merger, ACA Group continued to bolt on additional firms including Ethos ESG, Focus 1 Associates, and Advanced Regulatory Compliance.
ACA today has more than 1,250 employees across 11 offices in the US, UK, Malta, and India. The firm helps asset and wealth managers solve challenges in compliance, AML and finance crimes, ESG, cybersecurity, Brexit implementation, and distribution.
