Seniority in execution

When is this needed?

Many organisations find that governance and internal audit are formally assigned on paper, but in practice lack the level that the board, the regulator or the situation demands. Two examples:

Housing corporation — restructuring after supervisory incident

A mid-sized housing corporation received a signal from the Dutch Housing Authority (Aw) that its internal controls were inadequate. The board did not want a months-long advisory process, but someone who could sit directly at the table with the supervisory board, the management team and the regulator — while simultaneously rolling up their sleeves.

Fintech scale-up — DNB process without internal audit

A fast-growing fintech with a payment services licence was facing DNB questions about the design and effectiveness of its risk management. There was no internal audit function, and engaging a Big4 firm was disproportionate for the organisation's size. They needed someone who could both conduct the conversation with DNB and set up the underlying risk management themselves.

What Audirium does

Audirium delivers senior executive capacity that executes directly. No junior team being managed, no intermediate layers, no knowledge transfer that takes months. The person doing the work is the same person who sits at the table with the board and the regulator.

That means:

• Immediately operational — no weeks of onboarding
• Single point of contact for the board, audit committee, regulator and operations
• Substantive depth in risk, audit and governance — not just process knowledge
• Switching between strategic and operational level on the same day

Deliverables

What you concretely receive:

• IA Charter and positioning document
• Risk-based audit plan (12 months, data-driven)
• Completed audits with board-level reporting
• Risk appetite framework and KRI dashboard
• Board-ready presentations and management reports
• Transition plan when scaling down

How it works

Month 1 — Baseline and quick wins

Assessment of the current governance structure, initial conversations with the board and key stakeholders, and identification of quick wins that deliver immediate value.

Months 2–3 — Foundation and execution

Building the framework: charter, audit plan, risk appetite. Simultaneously conducting the first audits and risk assessments, so the board sees output immediately.

Ongoing — Execution and embedding

Regular execution of the audit plan, periodic reporting to the board and the audit committee, and gradual embedding within the organisation. Intensity scales with the need.

Result

"We had expected it to take months before we had a working internal audit function. After six weeks the first audit was in the final phase and the board had a risk dashboard they were actually using."

Why not a traditional advisory engagement?

The difference lies in who does the work, how quickly results become visible, and what you retain when the engagement ends.