Technology meets empathy: Lyndsey Miller’s award winning formula

Technology is an essential aid in modern internal auditing, and understanding how tech will help internal audit teams to cover more ground, faster, and tackle rapidly emerging risks is a vital part of leadership. But people with a passion for tech are sometimes assumed to lack the human interests that nurture and encourage teams. With a nomination form that emphasised winning “hearts and minds”, “championing diversity”, “empowering” and “motivating”, Lyndsey Miller, Audit Director at Nationwide Building Society, demonstrated how a combination of the two can achieve results. It also won her the Chartered IIA’s Audit & Risk Awards for Inspirational Leader 2025. 

Miller joined Nationwide as Audit Director with a team of ten people in 2019. By the time the Covid pandemic began, she had established a clearer direction for the team, a skills development programme to support it, and implemented new commercially focused methodologies. Lockdowns prompted her to introduce real-time internal audit assurance, utilising her interest in technology to support the business. 

Since then, she has continued to support tech innovation within Nationwide. She now has a team of 40, which oversees audits of the Chief Operating Office. This covers technology, security and resilience, payments, change, digital, data, third-party risk and business services – dealing with approximately 4,000 colleagues as well as specialist third-party suppliers. 

Meanwhile, the organisation has undergone significant change, with a new CEO and COO. It recently acquired Virgin Money and Miller is responsible for auditing the integration process. She has supported the business to innovate using new insights from data and to develop a new tech-based audit tool. She is also encouraging, and experimenting with, new uses of AI in internal audit. 

These changes have required a cultural shift in her team, as well as new tech skills and demonstrations of internal audit courage. It would have been impossible without Miller’s people skills and her desire to help her team develop new ways of working. 

“Lyndsey stands out from other leaders because of her personal approach. She is passionate about empowering her team to learn for themselves and develop the skills to navigate the challenging yet rewarding world of internal audit,” her nominator wrote.  

“She creates a safe environment for us to innovate and try new things, but always maintains a consistent set of principles that allow us to thrive. She values the impact of internal audit and encourages us to keep pace with the ever-changing business landscape so that we maintain credibility with our stakeholders.” 

Phil Rivett, Chair of the Audit Committee at Nationwide, was impressed by Miller’s ability to engage and influence management and the board. “She balances technical expertise with a strong human touch – showing empathy, supporting her team, and encouraging open dialogue. Lyndsey builds deep and trusted relationships with stakeholders, taking the time to truly listen to their challenges,” he wrote. 

He praised the way in which her work has engaged all levels of stakeholders and has driven meaningful improvements across the organisation. He said she has a “quiet yet powerful presence” and “leads not with volume, but with wisdom, clarity and an unwavering commitment to excellence”.  

Additionally, she is deeply committed to developing talent, mentoring and inspiring her team to grow in both capability and confidence,” he wrote. 

A senior Technology Officer at Nationwide wrote that an adverse report from Miller’s team was the most valuable he had seen in a career of more than 30 years. Their reports have also led to changes to corporate technology including significant investments in change. Their work on a bespoke and sustainable internal audit tool has ensured that it can be adapted and developed internally, saving considerable external costs.  

How did she get here? 

“I’ve always worked in financial services, mostly in internal audit,” Miller says. “Like most people, I worked my way up starting as a trainee auditor, working across all subject matters before realising that I had a passion for technology and change”. 

She soon turned her attention to data and how it could improve internal audit insights. She took every opportunity to pursue this interest, but was keen to keep a broad focus, and not to specialise early in her career.  

When she took on her current team, she drew on all her past experiences to help it to move forward. “I started with a great team, but it was much smaller than it is now and had several key roles vacant,” she recalls. “I re-organised it to make it more efficient and to align more closely with the organisation. I also needed to identify the specialisms we needed and work out how to fill the gaps.” 

Once she had found the people, she had to cultivate a strong culture and ensure all team members worked well together with a common purpose. “I started by being clear about what I thought was good internal auditing and how we should work with the business. Most importantly, I wanted to establish how we should treat people,” she says. 

Leadership 

The leader has a huge impact on each team member and must remember that each person has a different life and experiences, Miller says. “It’s a two-way relationship, so as well as getting what I need from people, as a leader it’s my responsibility to make sure I support their development.  Collectively, teams achieve more if leaders understand the strengths of each person and focus on helping them to be their best.” 

When it comes to implementing change, Miller recommends small incremental changes and consistent leadership. It’s also vital to stay calm when everyone is busy and getting stressed. 

“You need to role-model what you’re looking for,” she says. “Trust is essential. If we all know the goal, your team will be willing to challenge you provided they trust you.”  

She encourages team members to provide constructive challenge. “I don’t know everything, so an open conversation is essential. The starting point must always be ‘why’ – why do I think this is the right decision or why do you disagree?” 

A caring culture is essential, she adds, because if you understand what motivates the people in the team it’s easier to make decisions. One of Miller’s team told her that they saw her as inspirational when she delayed a decision, because she demonstrated that it’s ok to take time to think. “Sometimes you need to act fast, but at other times it can be better to stop and ask what your end goal is and question the best way forward,” she says. “A delay may be frustrating, but it saves time if you get a better response.” 

Not rushing decisions can be a brave move. Miller says it’s a question of confidence. Confident people can say they need more information which may take time, she says – and a leader who says this encourages their team to be confident in similar situations. 

She believes that her own confidence derives partly from a supportive peer group in Nationwide and partly from experience. “Over time, you put yourself in situations and learn from these.” 

She has also benefited from coaching. “It gave me space to think about things I had never stopped to consider,” she explains. “It made me realise that I’m not the same person I was five or ten years ago. Every experience changes you and you grow with each success or failure. You have to be willing to fail and to let others do the same.” 

“I wouldn’t be doing this job if I hadn’t had opportunities from people who had faith in me,” Miller says. “Once someone is ready, you have to give your team opportunities and help them develop confidence.” 

Again, this depends on understanding the individuals in the team and trusting their abilities. “I’m comfortable with people in my team talking to directors on their own because I know what they can do and I have confidence in them. That’s how you develop future leaders,” she says. 

When looking for new talent, Miller likes to hire people with internal audit or risk experience who are keen to develop their technical knowledge. Some of her recruits have subsequently moved into operational roles in the business, which she sees as a positive reflection on their time in audit as well as for their careers. 

“We’re giving more people a chance to get involved in the data insights specialist team to help us identify those with real talent and interest in this,” she adds. “We’re offering them the chance to take on more technical specialist roles.” 

What’s on her agenda now? 

Miller is currently interested in the commercial uses of AI. Safety and security are paramount, but she’s also keen to  take advantage of the opportunities it presents. “This is a new angle for internal audit. Of course, we want to check that it’s being used safely, but we also want to encourage embracing its opportunities. Within internal audit, we’re asking how it can get us past pain points. We’re experimenting with using AI to support report writing and creating work papers. It’s very exciting,” she says. 

Creativity and imagination is vital to finding solutions to internal audit challenges, so Miller focuses on ensuring her team understands their shared goals and has the confidence to think widely and question how they do things.  

For example, they are involved in early advisory work on the Virgin Money integration and Miller is asking her team to be creative about how they approach this. “We’ve come up with new ways to report, doing monthly reports and focused assessments continually, rather than focusing on full-scale audits. It’s a huge undertaking but has been warmly received,” she says. 

Security is, naturally, an ongoing issue for all organisations, particularly those in financial services, and keeping up with tech security is a constant challenge for Miller’s team. “I have a fantastic team and we are confident that the organisation has a strong security culture and people, but the bad guys are always developing their attacks,” she says. “The recent attacks on retailers were a reminder of what can go wrong.” 

Winning the award 

Miller was told she had been nominated as inspirational leader when the nomination was submitted. “It was a wonderful surprise and it meant so much to me because it came from the people I work with. I was honoured that they nominated me,” she says. 

At the awards event, she felt quite relaxed as she hadn’t contemplated winning and was satisfied to have been nominated. “I was amazed to win – but truly delighted once the reality sank in” she says. 

She also enjoyed meeting people at the event, some of whom she hadn’t seen for years. “It was a great opportunity to network and meet old colleagues and the response after I won was humbling. I was overwhelmed by the messages I received over the next few days. It really touched me. Winning was a career high and it shows the reach these awards have across the whole profession.” 

If you or someone you know is shaping the future of internal audit through outstanding work or leadership, don’t let it go unnoticed. Submit your nomination for the 2026 Audit & Risk Awards today.