Congratulations to the 2025 Audit & Risk Award winners — let’s celebrate every internal audit professional who inspires change!
When so many internal auditors came together in June to celebrate the winners of our Audit & Risk Awards 2025, we united to celebrate excellence and to honour courage. Because that’s what our profession is built on.
Internal audit depends not just on technical skill or regulatory insight, but on the courage to ask the hard questions, speak truth to power and stand firm in the storm and we do this with style.
Let’s take a breath and reflect for a moment. The world feels fragile, and economic volatility, conflict, climate shocks and political divisions dominate the headlines. But beneath that noise, I want to shine a light on something powerful. Internal audit exists in every corner of society – in hospitals and tech companies, city councils and global banks, sports bodies, education trusts, charities and energy firms.
Our fingerprints are everywhere, which means we hold something precious: the ability to help society function more wisely, more justly, more resiliently. That was the real story of the Chartered IIA’s Awards event. We were not there only to celebrate great work, although that was important. We were there to honour a profession that has the potential to make society better.
This past year has shown us the pace of change isn’t slowing. AI is reshaping the workplace. Cyber attacks are more complex. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns, digital resilience and geopolitical unrest are not footnotes, they are frontlines.
And at every turn, internal auditors have shown up. You have leaned into uncertainty and engaged with complexity. You’ve had the courage to speak when silence would have been easier.
Let’s be clear: courage in our field doesn’t always come with a spotlight. It comes with persistence – asking the awkward question and holding up the mirror up, kindly, but firmly.
Every winner of an award, every team or individual who was shortlisted, and every colleague who came to our event to cheer them on, deserves our thanks, not just for what they have done, but for the spirit in which they did it.
You’ll have noticed that the Chartered IIA has refreshed its brand this year. But our purpose remains rock solid: to champion, develop and support our members.
Whether you're leading transformation, mentoring a junior colleague, implementing innovative tech, or simply walking into a boardroom armed with integrity, your contribution counts. You are shaping the future of this profession.
This is why at this event there were no losers. Every internal auditor has some form of impact, all worthy of applause.
So on that note, I want everyone who reads this to tell one of their colleagues something courageous they’ve done that inspired them this year. This could be a conversation they started, a change they championed or a question they asked. Make them see their impact.
That’s how we keep this profession alive, not with plaques or podiums, but with recognition that comes from the heart.
The awards we gave out at the event for Outstanding Team, Inspirational Leader, Rising Star, Professional Impact, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Champion, and Internal Audit Innovation aren’t just trophies, they are stories of grit, purpose and perseverance.
All of those nominated for awards this year are setting standards that will have impact into the future, not just for one night. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that internal auditors are society’s quiet optimists – not naïve, but hopeful, not loud, but determined, not perfect, but principled.
So let’s celebrate the awards winners alongside all those internal audit professionals who are making a real difference. Let’s honour courage and let’s remember: we are not just witnesses to change, we are agents of it. Let’s make sure the world knows it.
With many thanks to our headline sponsor of the awards event, Protiviti, and to Audit & Risk Recruitment, BDO and IAC Recruitment, the category sponsors.