Seniority in execution

When is this needed?

Many organisations find that governance and internal audit are formally in place on paper, but in practice do not reach the level the board, regulator or situation demands. Two examples:

Housing corporation: restructuring after supervisory incident

A mid-sized housing corporation received a signal from the Dutch Authority for Housing Corporations (Aw) that its internal controls were insufficiently demonstrable. The board did not want a months-long external advisory engagement: they needed someone who could sit 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 service licence faced DNB questions about the design and effectiveness of its risk management. There was no internal audit function, and bringing in a Big4 firm was not proportionate to the size of the organisation. They needed someone who could both lead the conversation with DNB and set up the underlying risk management framework themselves.

What Audirium does

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

That means:

• Immediately operational: no weeks-long induction period
• Single point of contact for board, AC, regulator and operations
• Substantive depth in risk, audit and governance: not just process knowledge
• Switching between strategic and operational levels on the same day

Deliverables

What you receive concretely:

• 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
• Handover plan when scaling down

How it works

Month 1: Baseline and quick wins

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

Months 2–3: Framework 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 board and AC, and gradual embedding in the organisation. Intensity scales with need.

Result

"We had expected it would take months before we had a functioning internal audit function. Six weeks in, the first audit was in its final stages 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 are visible, and what you retain after the engagement ends.