Sammamish, Washington, United States
Ben is a Regional Principal, located in Seattle, Washington. He has spent his career performing information technology controls assessments in conjunction with management consulting engagements, compliance audits, SOX 404 readiness and financial statement audits. On the personal side of things, Ben has a passion for learning, meeting new people, helping others, photography, 80's pop culture, everything Florida Gator related, and the Seattle Seahawks! Ben's client base has included both public and private companies, Fortune 500 Industrial Products companies, Fortune 100 Financial Institutions, Russell 2000 and large government agencies. He has extensive involvement with the PCAOB and is a subject matter expert in auditing SAP. As a regional leader, Ben has significant experience running a practice with resources spread across geographical locations, resulting in strong project management skills. He has a deep knowledge of security organizational concepts, program and policy development, and security frameworks and standards (COBIT, COSO, FISCAM, NIST, etc…). His career has been in the public accounting IT controls space, spending a decade with a Big 4 firm prior to joining Grant Thornton.
• Regional Principal for IT Assurance (external IT audit) for the North West Region (5 offices). • Responsible to implement the firm’s audit strategy for external IT audit engagements. • Responsible to interact with and support PCAOB and internal audit quality inspections in the IT Partner role. • Perform internal audit quality inspections at a national level to assess the quality of Grant Thornton’s audit engagements. • National SAP IT Controls Leader for internal and external audit. Responsible for the firm’s automated segregation of duties and sensitive access analysis tool, including communication to the PCAOB on the compliance of the tool with auditing standards. • National IT Assurance Training Sponsor. Responsible for the development and execution of training related to external IT Audit methodology/materials for all US IT staff. • National IT Assurance PMO Leader. Responsible for the development of operational best practices for the national IT Assurance practice.
• Regional Managing Director for IT Assurance (external IT audit) for the East Region. • One of two regional IT leaders, serving in the “IT Partner” role, responsible to implement the firm’s audit strategy for the east coast of the United States for all external IT audit engagements. • IT Assurance Leader of the DC/Baltimore/Philadelphia/New York City offices. • Responsible to interact with and support PCAOB and internal audit quality inspections in the “IT Partner” role. • Perform internal audit quality inspections at a national level to assess the quality of Grant Thornton’s audit engagements. • Multiple speaking engagements at universities and professional organizations across the east coast. • National SAP IT Controls Leader for internal and external audit. Responsible for the firm’s automated segregation of duties and sensitive access analysis tool, including communication to the PCAOB on the compliance of the tool with auditing standards. • National IT Assurance Training Leader. Responsible for the development and execution of training related to external IT Audit methodology/materials for all US IT staff. • National IT Assurance PMO Leader. Responsible for the development of operational best practices for the national IT Assurance practice.
• Regional operations leader for the East Region, responsible to staff engagements, ensure team chargeability, train staff, and maintain operational compliance across the region (~50,000 hours, 450 clients & 43 staff). • Re-assessed staffing and support model to increase profitability of existing engagements by ~ $2.5 million (37% total regional revenue) across East Region. • National SAP subject matter expert. • National IT audit methodology resource. Authored the national audit methodology IT testing templates. • National IT Audit Training Lead. Developed the national ITGC Audit materials and presented these across the East region. • Responsible to interact with and support PCAOB and internal audit quality inspections in the “IT Partner” role.
• IT Audit Manager, responsible for managing 14 team members across multiple engagements (over $2 million in annual managed revenue). • Primary tasks included the following: o Identification and pursuit of new business o Managing the operations of the IT Controls practice (budgeting, staffing, managing team utilization) o Managing client responsibilities (scoping engagements, overseeing and reviewing work of the team, managing the client relationship) o Recruiting, hiring and developing staff • Assisted in the writing of proposals that resulted in over eight million dollars of new business (annual averages). • Identified by PwC management as top of the peer group in staff development, maintenance of client relationships, and efficiency in production of quality work.
• SAP National Specialist, performed engagements on over 20 clients that ran SAP. • Served as the East Coast Regional SAP Lead, supporting the east coast with technical SAP concerns on firm engagements. National methodology resource. Taught three, week-long SAP Basis training courses (average of 20 participants per session). • Engagements included SAP Basis security reviews, SAP business process reviews, SAP pre-implementation reviews and SAP post-implementation reviews. Provided real time help desk SAP support on segregation of duties analysis.
• Initial specialization in IT General Computer Controls (ITGC) reviews, both internally and externally, with emphasis on Sarbanes-Oxley 404 readiness/compliance. • Led ITGC reviews for manufacturing and financial institution clients based in the Carolinas with locations spread across the US and Europe.