Chief Audit Executive Programme

The Chief Audit Executive Programme is a ten-day senior internal-audit leadership programme delivered by Mars Training Centre at international venues — London, Dubai, Doha, Vienna and New York — designed for chief audit executives, heads of internal audit and senior audit leaders preparing for the top audit seat.

The chief audit executive role has changed more in the last decade than in the previous three. Boards now expect internal audit to provide assurance across financial control, cyber, ESG, conduct, third-party risk, transformation and the operational resilience of the enterprise. Audit committees expect briefings that go beyond rating systems and into root cause, culture and forward-looking risk. Regulators expect a function that meets the IIA International Professional Practices Framework — and increasingly, that goes beyond it.

This is a two-week senior programme. Over ten days you will work through the breadth of the modern chief audit executive role: from the function strategy and the relationship with the audit committee through to engagement leadership, data-driven assurance, talent, technology and the personal practice of leading at the top of an audit function. It is delivered by senior practitioners drawn from the Mars panel.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this programme, you will be able to:

• Apply the IIA International Professional Practices Framework to a chief audit executive's leadership of the function.
• Design and articulate an internal audit function strategy that aligns with enterprise priorities.
• Build a risk-based audit plan rooted in enterprise risk and the assurance map.
• Lead an internal audit team across recruitment, development and retention.
• Design and lead the relationship with the audit committee and chief executive.
• Use data analytics, continuous auditing and audit technology at scale.
• Lead complex investigations and special engagements.
• Manage external quality assessments and lift the function's maturity.
• Communicate at the chief audit executive level with credibility and authority.
• Build a personal practice that sustains performance at the top of an audit function.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a senior practitioner's command of the chief audit executive role and a personal plan to lift the impact of your function, along with a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain an audit leader who can run a function that the audit committee trusts, the executive team values and the regulator finds credible — and who can connect assurance to enterprise value.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior internal audit leaders, including:

• Chief audit executives in any sector
• Heads of internal audit preparing for the chief audit executive seat
• Internal audit directors in large or complex organisations
• Audit committee chairs and members building methodological literacy
• Senior public-sector audit leaders
• Heads of risk, compliance and assurance with cross-line responsibility
• External audit partners moving into chief audit executive roles
• Senior advisers to audit committees

The seniority floor is director level and above in internal audit, with senior managers preparing for chief audit executive appointments also welcomed. The two weeks combine faculty-led sessions, regional case studies, diagnostic tools and a personal action plan developed across the full programme.