Format: Online
Sponsored by:
The Internal Audit Foundation’s Mindset Shift: Towards Innovation study builds on the landmark Internal Audit: Vision 2035 initiative, which underscored the importance of adopting a new mindset to ensure the profession’s relevance and impact in the years ahead. Through global research and practitioner insights, the study highlights the barriers that hold functions back and demonstrates how leadership behaviors and team culture can either inhibit or accelerate innovation. This session will explore how internal audit leaders can create an environment where innovation is encouraged, risks are balanced with opportunities, and new technologies are responsibly explored, and internal audit teams/staff can consider the skills necessary to support innovation within their own function. Participants will come away with actionable strategies to strengthen their function’s capacity for innovation while advancing the profession’s long-term vision.
DATE: Nov 19, 2025
TIME: 12:00 PM-1:00 PM ET
One (1) NASBA CPE will only be awarded to participants on the live broadcast who are logged in for a minimum of 50 minutes and engage on at least three poll questions per each hour of the event.
Keep scrolling to register.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify common barriers, both individual and organizational, that limit innovation within audit functions.
- Explain the role of leadership in influencing innovation readiness, including how fear, awareness, and risk perceptions affect decision-making.
- Recognize key enablers and skills that foster an innovation mindset and support team-level adaptability.
- Apply practical strategies to embed innovation into audit practice, enhancing collaboration and organizational value.
SPEAKERS
Adam Ross, Partner Grant Thornton Advisors LLC
Adam is a Partner with Grant Thornton Advisers LLC and was recently appointed the firm’s national Internal Audit services leader. He has over twenty-five years of audit and advisory experience working with domestic and international organizations across several industries to increase awareness on risk, improve internal controls, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their business and information technology (IT) processes, operations, and organization structure. Adam is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Internal Auditors - Philadelphia Chapter, and the University of Delaware Accounting and Management Information Systems (MIS) Advisory Board.
Nora Zeid Kelani, CIA, CRMA, Group Chief Audit & Risk Officer
Trust Holding, Vice Chair, Internal Audit Foundation
Chair, Committee of Research and Education Advisors (CREA)
Nora Kelani is an accomplished Chief Audit and Risk Officer with extensive experience leading assurance, governance, and risk transformation initiatives across diverse industries. She is known for her forward-thinking approach to internal audit, enterprise risk management, and ethics—bringing together technical rigor and human insight.
Nora serves as the Vice Chair of the Internal Audit Foundation and the Chair of the Committee of Research and Education Advisors (CREA) under The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). She has held several leadership and advisory roles within the IIA community, contributing to global thought leadership, professional standards development, and the advancement of audit education and ethics.
As a frequent speaker and trainer, Nora inspires professionals to see audit and risk not as compliance functions but as enablers of innovation, integrity, and strategic resilience. Her work reflects a passion for connecting organizational culture, ethical leadership, and sustainable performance.
Beyond her professional role, Nora is an avid traveler and photographer with a deep interest in politics, ethics, and human psychology—perspectives that shape her distinctive voice in the world of corporate governance and risk leadership.
Katie Baldwin, Head of Internal Audit, Mazda Australia
Katie has over 25 years of internal and external audit experience, specialising in the areas of governance and risk mitigation particularly related to safety and brand protection.
Katie has led the internal audit functions for large corporate and government organisations in Australia where she is based. She has also worked in internal audit teams of global businesses, including a 10 year period where she lived and worked in Los Angeles. She has been responsible for conducting a diverse range of internal audit projects including system implementation reviews, construction audits and fraud investigations.
Katie is a Chartered Accountant and has a Bachelor of Business, double degree in Accounting and Catering & Hotel Management. She is also an independent member of her local council's Audit & Risk Committees where she supports local councils to embed a risk aware mindset in decision making.
Having had a broad variety of employment within the corporate and government sectors, consulting both in Australia and overseas, with some of the most amazing projects imaginable, Katie is a huge advocate for internal audit and feels it is one of the most interesting and satisfying professions available.
Dr. Dillon Caldwell
Dr. Dillon Caldwell serves as Manager of Research and Insights at the IIA’s Internal Audit Foundation, where he engages in studies on emerging risks, innovation, and the changing role of the internal audit profession. His research emphasizes translating academic insight into actionable strategies that help audit leaders drive organizational impact. Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Caldwell spent over a decade as a professor and led research initiatives in both public and private sectors, including overseeing a human relations research lab for the U.S. Department of Defense.