Speaking of Risk and Audit

Host Richard Chambers interviews April Crichlow, CMO of Optro, about marketing to the internal audit profession, the company’s customer-driven approach, and the strategy behind renaming AuditBoard to Optro. They discuss how Optro balances cutting-edge AI features with practical outcomes, builds trust with professional bodies, and advises chief audit executives on communicating value to leadership and boards.

Richard Chambers talks with Justin Greenberger, Optro's Chief Customer Officer, about his journey from GE internal audit and enterprise IT to leading customer success at a practitioner-founded SaaS company. The episode covers how practitioner experience shapes customer engagement, methods for measuring customer health and proving hard ROI (including reclaimed reporting time and reduced SOX hours), and strategies for aligning audit technology with broader company priorities. They also discuss the practical adoption of agentic AI and autonomous testing—change management, human-in-the-loop governance, traceability to build trust, and tactical advice CAEs can use to start their AI transformation journey.

Richard Chambers sits down with Kieran Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Midship, to discuss Midship's acquisition by Optro and their agentic AI that reduces SOX testing from 16 hours to under 15 minutes. They cover how the autonomous testing engine integrates with Optro, preserves Excel workflows, produces auditable evidence, and automates up to 85% of SOX controls—especially ITGCs. The episode also explores where human judgment will remain essential, how auditors should prepare for ad hoc testing and managing AI agents, and what the future of internal audit looks like as agentic AI scales across the profession.

Richard Chambers interviews Anthony Pugliese, President and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors, on the profession's evolution over the past five years. They discuss the rapid rise of AI, the growing trend of second-line functions moving under chief audit executives, and the IIA’s advocacy and stakeholder initiatives like the Global Audit Committee Center. The episode also highlights the IIA’s Faces of Internal Audit campaign for Internal Audit Month and offers guidance for young auditors, emphasizing technology fluency and human intelligence skills as keys to future relevance.

Richard Chambers speaks with KPMG partner Charles King about how internal audit is adapting to AI, data analytics, and emerging cyber threats. They cover practical AI use cases for audit planning, testing, and reporting, and stress the importance of curiosity, technology skills, and governance. Charles also warns about the overlooked risk of post-quantum cryptography and urges audit teams to prepare. The episode balances audit rigor with innovation and offers advice for leaders wanting to build momentum with agentic AI while maintaining professional skepticism.

Richard Chambers interviews Guru Sethupathy, Optro's General Manager of AI Governance, on practical approaches to governing AI. Guru outlines the "three Ps" framework—policies, processes, people—and explains why rapid advances like agentic AI increase risks around performance, security, and transparency. They discuss regulatory pressures, the need for orchestration and continuous monitoring, and how cross-functional collaboration and technology can enable effective AI governance across organizations.

On the day AuditBoard becomes Optro, CEO Raul Villar Jr. discusses the company’s rebrand, its AI-powered expansion across audit, risk, compliance, and infosec, and how a recent acquisition strengthens its leadership in AI governance. He explains how the new identity supports international growth, preserves customer experience, and positions Optro to transform risk into opportunity with agentic systems of action.

Richard Chambers interviews Richard Penfill of PayPal about using data science and AI in internal audit, exploring how prompt libraries, AI agents, and a new concept called "swarm auditing" streamline analytics and testing. The episode covers practical challenges (the "bridge tax"), governance and risk concerns, use cases for agent orchestration, and how AI will shift auditors toward judgment, ethics, and strategic oversight.

Richard Chambers interviews Margie Bastolla, an audit report–writing expert, trainer, and author, on effective audit reporting. They examine common reporting errors, including unclear effect statements and weak root-cause analysis, and discuss practical techniques to write reports that resonate with high-level readers. Margie also discusses the role of AI as a research assistant, the importance of critical thinking, and trends toward shorter, more visual reporting that still prioritize a clear message.

In this episode Richard Chambers interviews Mike Peppers, Chief Audit Executive at the University of Texas System, about his decades-long career in internal audit—especially in higher education and public service—and his role leading the overhaul of the Global Internal Audit Standards. They discuss the public-sector audit environment, the standards' new guidance for public-sector and small audit functions, the importance of governance, and practical steps for auditors to embrace emerging technologies like AI and ensure maximum impact by 2030.