Grant Thornton Adds Audit Director Mike de Robillard in Guernsey

Grant Thornton Channel Islands has hired Mike de Robillard as an audit director in Guernsey, bringing more than two decades of audit, accounting and financial services experience to the firm's local leadership team.

The appointment targets a specific capability gap. De Robillard has led complex international audits for regulated and listed businesses across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real assets and listed investment funds. That's exactly the client mix that matters in Guernsey, a jurisdiction where asset management and private capital structures are core business, and where audit firms compete on specialist fund expertise rather than scale alone.

Who is Mike de Robillard?

His career spans four jurisdictions: Guernsey, the UK, the Cayman Islands and South Africa. That track record reads like a map of the world's offshore and mid-shore fund domiciles, which is the point. Auditors serving private capital clients increasingly need people who understand how structures connect across borders, not just local rules.

On the credentials side, de Robillard holds dual professional standing. He is an associate chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), and also a chartered accountant and member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

He said: "I'm excited to join Grant Thornton and contribute to the next phase of growth across the Channel Islands."

"The firm's international reach, breadth of expertise and ambitious culture provide a strong platform for growth," de Robillard added. "I'm looking forward to contributing to the leadership team and delivering for our clients while building on the firm's collaborative culture to support our people's continued development, success and career progression."

What does this change for clients and practitioners?

For fund managers, administrators and finance directors in Guernsey and Jersey, the hire deepens the senior audit bench at a firm that provides audit, assurance, tax, corporate recovery and advisory services across both islands. The firm combines local knowledge with the international Grant Thornton network, so clients with cross-border structures get continuity between island-level service and global network resources.

For the local talent market, it signals that Grant Thornton Channel Islands is hiring at the director level and investing in leadership — a relevant data point for auditors weighing moves between jurisdictions, given de Robillard's own multi-market career path.

The Guernsey office view

Cyril Swale, Guernsey office head and audit partner, framed the hire as part of a broader strengthening of the firm's audit capabilities. He said: "We are pleased to welcome Mike to our Guernsey team as we continue to strengthen our audit capabilities."

"We look forward to the valuable contribution he will make to our firm and our clients," Swale said.

A pattern, not a one-off

The de Robillard appointment is the second senior internal move Grant Thornton Channel Islands has announced recently. The firm promoted Brady Lesbirel to business advisory director, which points to deliberate bench-building across both the audit and advisory sides of the practice.

Taken together, the two moves suggest the firm is positioning for growth in the Channel Islands' funds and private capital services market. For competitors — and for clients putting audit work out to tender — the practical question is whether Grant Thornton's deepened director-level bench changes the calculus on complex, multi-jurisdiction fund audits. On paper, at least, the firm has just made that pitch harder to ignore.