Ethics and Compliance: The Role of Audit Leadership
This session will address how internal audit leaders can become trusted advisors in their organizations in dealing with emerging ethics, compliance and fraud risks. The pandemic has put pressure on internal audit to deliver more value to stakeholders which may involve additional responsibilities. The enormous impact of social media on organizations to “do the right thing” is dominant. Compliance failures have put organizations in the news, threatened their business objectives, and severely impacted their reputation. Internal audit should have a “seat at the table” to evaluate and potentially manage these risks in their organizations.Given the unique and independent role of internal audit, leaders can seize organizational gaps and opportunities in ethics, compliance and fraud risk to deliver concise, practical and effective guidance. The primary objective is to seek these opportunities now, rather than responding after the markets or regulators have inflicted their punishment. This session will help leaders develop the courage to drive a stronger and more effective internal audit function – based on the extensive learnings from two leaders.
It will differentiate from other sessions since it does not necessarily present a new program or methodology, but instead will be far more reflective and probing on the style and approach for internal audit leadership. Combined with the critical shortage of strong qualified internal audit leaders, this session is designed to instill confidence and bravery for success in the sensitive domain of ethics and fraud.