Aveni hires CCO to lead agentic AI compliance push. May 18, 2026 Aveni, a UK-based AI FinTech focused on compliance and regulatory solutions for financial services, has named Kent Mackenzie as its new chief commercial officer. Mackenzie arrives with more than two decades of experience spanning senior positions at major banking institutions, management consultancy, and AI RegTech. His appointment is intended to drive Aveni's commercial expansion across the banking sector, advance its assurance and compliance product offering, and pursue strategic partnerships alongside international growth opportunities. His career includes ten years in senior roles at institutions including NatWest, Morgan Stanley, and Lloyds Banking Group, where he oversaw transformation programmes focused on risk, data, compliance, and disruptive technology. He subsequently spent a further decade at Deloitte leading significant portions of the firm's risk analytics practice, applying machine learning and AI to compliance challenges at an institutional level. During that period, he founded RegHub, an award-winning software platform that used data and AI to help firms evaluate and manage regulatory change. He grew RegHub into a multi-million pound revenue-generating business before it was acquired by Corlytics, where he then served as chief operating officer. Most recently, Mackenzie undertook research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on agentic AI and its enterprise implications, before establishing his own advisory firm. Aveni develops AI-native tools for financial services firms navigating increasingly complex compliance obligations. Its products include FinLLM, described as the UK's first large language model built specifically for financial services, alongside its Aveni Detect capability, both of which are designed to support compliance and assurance functions as the industry transitions toward agent-driven operational environments. The hire comes as financial services organisations face mounting pressure to modernise compliance operations, with agentic AI seen as a significant factor reshaping how regulatory risk is managed and scrutinised. Commenting on his appointment, Mackenzie said: "Aveni's heritage and first-mover momentum in financial services AI are genuinely impressive. FinLLM, as the UK's first LLM built for financial services, and the Aveni Detect capabilities are creating meaningful products on both sides of the execution boundary, and the company's focus on assurance and compliance is squarely aligned with where the industry is heading. The opportunity to address the industry's transformation into the agentic era, with Aveni at the forefront, is one I couldn't pass up." Aveni CEO Joseph Twigg said: "The assurance landscape in financial services is undergoing a fundamental transformation with the introduction of AI agents predicted at scale. Kent's combination of frontline banking experience, regulatory expertise, and a demonstrated ability to build and commercialise AI-driven platforms makes him uniquely placed to help Aveni lead that transformation. We're delighted to welcome him to the team." Stay ahead of the compliance curve. FinTech Global delivers the strategic intelligence, regulatory insight, and market intelligence that senior decision-makers rely on to navigate the AI-driven transformation of financial services - before it becomes consensus. Subscribe today. Enjoying the stories? Investors. The following investor(s) were tagged in this article.

Corlytics, the global RegTech leader backed by Verdane, becomes the first RegTech firm to achieve the ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its business-wide AI management system. This establishes Corlytics’ commitment to AI Governance. It joins ranks alongside a few leading technology companies.Where many third-party providers and suppliers are quick to integrate AI software, too few place the right level of focus on security. Last week JP Morgan’s Chief Information Security Officer warned third party software suppliers that “SaaS is creating a substantial vulnerability that is weakening the global economic system” and demanded they “prioritise security over rushing features”. The ISO 42001 certification answers this challenge by building the trust and security today’s stakeholders need as it mandates bias mitigation, risk, and resilience controls across the entire AI lifecycle. It also maps to both the EU AI Act and the UK Government’s National AI Strategy.The process involved an independent two stage audit by leading cybersecurity compliance firm A-LIGN which found zero non-conformities