Thomas Blissenden

Tom Blissenden is AUSTRAC’s Senior Liaison Officer for Southeast Asia based at the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Through his role, Tom engages with a wide range of foreign financial intelligence units, law enforcement agencies, and private sector partners across the Mekong to help identify and disrupt serious financial crime. Tom graduated from Macquarie University in Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Finance. He commenced his public service career at the Australian Attorney-General’s Department where he worked across a number of subject matter including criminal justice and transnational crime. He later joined the Department of Home Affairs where he represented Australia at the Financial Action Task Force – the international body responsible for setting global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) standards – and drafted amendments to Australia’s AML/CTF legislation. Tom has been working at AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence unit and AML/CTF regulator, for the past few years within a variety of policy and intelligence positions.