My career began on my native island of Mauritius as an auditor. Once I completed my ACCA Qualification, I joined a fast-growing group of companies as an internal auditor. I was eventually offered the group accountant position and was ultimately promoted to finance manager. In the pursuit of new opportunities, I decided to move from Mauritius to the US, where I accepted a position as a senior risk management auditor at Ally Bank.
My practice experience was key in helping me develop a solid grasp of a company’s financial statements while developing a keen business intuition. I was drawn to putting those competencies to work in the corporate setting and finding new experiences. I have found that practice focuses on the numbers and its accuracy, whereas the corporate world takes those numbers to tell a compelling business story.
My research focused on how companies can assess the effectiveness of their enterprise risk management
The Covid-19 pandemic was hugely disruptive to all businesses. This acted as a catalyst to accelerate the banking sector’s plans for digital transformation due to the vital need for expanded digital capabilities. Offering a better digital experience to customers, or leveraging the cloud as part of business systems, has proven to be a major challenge, as is implementing robust cybersecurity measures across enterprises. However, these obstacles also represent a great opportunity for financial institutions to successfully design and implement value-enhanced solutions.
While studying for my MBA, I was introduced to the ‘agile’ mindset. This is a thought process that involves understanding, collaborating, learning and remaining flexible in order to achieve high-performing results. The beauty of agile is that it is simple yet practical, and can be adapted to approach everyday problems.
‘Scrum’ is an agile approach that relies on teams to deliver projects in short cycles, enabling fast feedback, continual improvement and rapid adaptation to change. Becoming a certified scrum master provided me with a way of adapting the agile mindset towards managing projects at work, and this has enhanced my processes and productivity. Currently my team is actively working at leveraging the power of agile in all our projects, and I believe this will be a win for us personally and for the company.
I love learning new skills, furthering my knowledge, and meeting new people. Internal audit provides great opportunities to do exactly that. The profession is constantly evolving, bringing new challenges and teaching moments which shape new skills. I also enjoy knowing that what I do has a positive impact across the enterprise.
If I had law-making powers, I would change Murphy’s law. The revised Murphy’s law would be that anything that can go wrong, won’t go wrong.
One of my biggest accomplishments was the thesis I wrote as part of my master’s in accounting. My research focused on how companies can assess the effectiveness of their enterprise risk management. As part of the project, I implemented and tested the methodology in a real company, where I was challenged to think critically and apply my knowledge to solve real-life problems. The company noted the tangible benefits of my research, and revamped its risk management processes to adopt my recommendations, which was especially rewarding.
If I weren’t an accountant, I would be in a buy-side investment management role. I am fascinated by how the stock market works and its interconnection to world events.
I enjoy numismatology (the study of money). I also like biking and martial arts.
