United Kingdom

Project Management

European Baccalaureate

Zia Rezvi

Finance Consultant/Coach

Communication

Collaboration

Empathy

Team player

Organisation skills

Presentation skills

Stakeholder management

Analytical skills

Youtube

ChatGPT

Notion

PowerBI

Joined the organisation to lead a project to provide robust, documented audit trail to support the evaluation of operational controls covering over 80 internal controls across the business. Tasked in identifying gaps in the control documentation coverage of material risks and assist in the remediation process and develop an integrated assurance and attestation process that supports robust assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls.

As part of the Technology Risk and Control Enhancement Programme, I am responsible for managing workstreams and leading workshops to close audit findings, tracking progress of remediation and providing regular reporting to Business Owners and key stakeholders. The role will also define and embed a process for 'remediation assurance' and acceptance criteria for closing deficiencies with an external auditor. The role will also ensure 'fit for purpose' controls are in place to effectively support delivery of projects within the TRACE Programme, provide evidence that ‘user experience’ has been catered for and contribute to embedding of the TRACE Fundamental Principles.

Responsible for managing the Project Management process and controls of the UK SOX programme. Leading various initiatives including defining scope, planning resources, reporting risk and monitoring KPI's against project objectives.

Responsible for the testing of SOX controls over the CBRE Global Investors and Telford business segments including treasury processes, balance sheet reconciliations, JV revenue and accounting.

Ownet is the new venture and concept in business consulting based on a collaborative model with the core aim of leaving clients in a better place than at the start. All Ownet people are owners of the business and are rewarded based on the client’s success. Ownet brings expertise and drive to help execute change and transformation initiatives and embed a sustainable outcome.

I am responsible for driving Internal Control, Risk Control Management and Compliance initiatives together with driving GRC capability and business transformation projects.

I am an advisor to Graduate Mentor, an organisation which  help the next generation of under-represented graduates reach their career potential with expert support from inspiring mentors. Since 2021, in addition to mentoring over 20 graduate and undergraduate students, I have taken a leading role in:

1. Raising awareness of the organisation amongst my peers
2. Helping the organisation by sourcing high quality experts for their digital events in the Mentee Hub to provide career advice and guidance
3. Supporting Graduate Mentor in their journey in becoming a social enterprise.

Guidepoint connects clients with vetted subject matter experts — Advisors — from a global professional network. The clients leverage the insights and perspectives shared by our Advisors to stay informed and make better business decisions.

I provide ad hoc independent consultancy services to business who engage GLG as part of their research activities. As part of the GLG network of experts, business leaders, scientists, academics, former public-sector leaders, and subject matter specialists, consult with and advise more than 1,400 companies in 40 countries in nearly every sector, from Fortune 500 corporations to leading technology companies to professional services firms and financial institutions.

As member of Internal Audit, responsible for leading and engaging in financial and business audits to provide assurance as 3rd line of defence in BP’s Internal Control Framework.

Took a leading role in a range of audits from testing systems implementation, Group Digital Technology, cyber security, organisational effectiveness, financial risk management, business continuity, IT application controls and transformation projects.

Headed high impact projects including Excel testing methodology, SOX end to end training, communication strategy for the audit function, learning and development of Digital Fluency initiatives (Office365/Excel/Power BI), Quality Assurance reviews and standard audit test plans.

Achievements:

-Successfully steered a project by implementing and improving critical SOX methodology templates including test plans, work papers, issue trackers and reports, reducing manual processing time by 30%.

-Led a project team to design a governance risk and compliance implementation plan for automating the testing of a large global organisation’s SOX controls. Subsequently resulting in a saving of $50K.

-During 2019, I lead a team of 10 audit colleagues to design and deliver 9 workshops to increase the digital fluency of the audit function (130+ members) covering Office 365 productivity, MS Excel Data Analytics and hands-on Power BI

As a leading member of Group Control, responsible to oversee the SOX commitments for BP in terms of governance policies, testing and issue resolution in addition to manage financial control risk. Managed and participated in over 10 Financial control reviews of key areas of the business. Supervised the continuous improvement for Group Control processes and methodology.

Significant achievements include leading a program to re-design the training materials and successfully deliver 10 Internal controls over Financial Reporting courses in 6 countries, increasing the risk mitigation awareness of over 100 finance professionals.

Lead the UK Chocolate’s CFO’s risk assessment and testing of 12 accounting processes. Managed the project to meet Group’s expectations and target a reduction in external audit fees.

Managed the documentation and testing of internal controls for 5 regions and 3 business functions, controlling a budget of over $2m on an annual basis. Functional responsibilities for 10 SOX global facilitators involved in establishing business requirements, developing targets and timetables for regional compliance re-views, supporting field audits, producing reports for senior management teams, and monitoring on-going performance.

Achievements:

	• Streamlined external audit requirements to save over $1m in fees.
	• Managed the Group’s compliance program from understanding risks and issues within each region; liaising with local management teams to raise awareness of fraud and anti-corruption risks; and coaching and training staff through workshops, training courses and e-learning.
	• Project managed the implementation of a ‘whistle-blowing’ hotline covering 15 global locations for staff to facilitate the reporting of fraud or corruption. This increased transparency of reporting financial irregularities by 50%.

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