Mahesh Rao

Established and leads the Internal Audit & Compliance function as the sole in-house auditor, managing a co-sourced model, reporting functionally to the Board Audit Committee and administratively to the CEO. Primary liaison for all shareholder audits.

– Expanded audit coverage from 40% to 90% of auditable risks by designing the audit universe and a structured internal control repository — closing critical assurance gaps across supply chain, business continuity, and operations. – Built a dynamic, risk-based audit plan using a combined assurance map, directing resources toward high and emerging risks and reducing duplication in assurance activity. – Achieved a 90% acceptance rate on audit recommendations and 86% implementation of agreed actions over a sustained 10-year period well above the IIA global benchmark of ~70% — demonstrating high stakeholder trust and practical, actionable findings, with auditee feedback averaging 4.2 out of 5. – Developed the Directors' Onboarding Manual along with the CFO which was adopted by the Board. – Authored the organisation's first comprehensive Code of Conduct, benchmarked against shareholder codes and applicable domestic and international law; trained 100% of employees through face-to-face sessions, periodic refreshers and LinkedIn learning measurably increasing ethical decision-making awareness across the organisation. – Designed and launched a 24/7 multilingual whistleblowing platform (QR code, mobile, hotline) hosted by Navex Global supplemented by an Open Door Policy to report potential code breaches. – Achieved a 70% case substantiation rate with confirmed remediation actions, resolving 90% of the misconduct cases internally reducing Labour Court litigation exposure between 2023 and 2025.

Led the internal audit function, reporting to the Audit Committee and Chief Internal Audit & Risk Officer (CIARO). Managed a team of auditors delivering risk-based audit plans across a large-scale industrial group.

– Generated audit-driven financial returns well in excess of the annual audit budget by identifying inefficiencies, revenue leakage, and cost-saving opportunities across procurement, marketing, and operations – Redesigned the Levels of Authority framework to delegate decision-making closer to the business in marketing, credit, and capital expenditure — reducing approval times and enabling faster execution on commercial opportunities.

– Reduced audit cycle time and cost by an average of 8% year-on-year through process automation and ACL-driven test scripting across operations, finance, procurement, IT, and HR.

Recruited to design and implement the bank's complete front-end retail banking solution using the Misys Bankmaster platform.

– Delivered the full banking system implementation on schedule, enabling rapid branch network expansion and double-digit balance sheet growth. – Redesigned the chart of accounts, transaction processing, MIS reports, and system-based controls; integrated SWIFT and ATM operations. – Delivered a 20% increase in non-interest income by automating fee and commission calculations at transaction and account level — capturing revenue that had previously been missed through manual processing.