Above: TSTT’s new Chief Internal Auditor, Adrian Clarke. Photo courtesy TSTT.
TSTT’s new Chief Internal Auditor, Adrian Clarke, brings more than 25 years of experience as a chartered accountant and internal auditor, and promises to be a valuable asset in his new role at TSTT where he will be responsible for providing strategic leadership for TSTT’s audit functions.
Mr. Clarke holds a Master of Science in Strategic Leadership and Management and is certified in a number of audit-related areas including internal auditing, accounts, information systems, financial services, government auditing, control self-assessment and anti-money laundering.
He started his career as an auditor at Ernst and Young and has worked as a consultant for some of the country’s leading organizations. At the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago he developed systems for capturing and analyzing financial information from financial institutions, and The Trinidad & Tobago National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd. he provided guidance in relation to the effective operation of corporate governance within the organization. Since 1999, he has managed his own consultancy firm.
Mr. Clarke’s knowledge of accounting, financial and auditing procedures led to him being retained to help rehabilitate CLICO after its financial collapse in 2009. One of the highlights of this experience was that, despite the fact that he worked with a very small team, the strength and utility of their recommendations played a key role in bringing the company back to solvency in 2015.
“TSTT has a lot of people with intricate knowledge of the business which we need to exploit fully,” Mr Clarke said. “One way we can do that is by ensuring that they are in a position to express their ideas, and then making certain that those ideas are developed and executed.”
Mr. Clarke plans to engage the entire organizational structure in the creation of new and innovative ideas is an indicator of his progressive philosophy which focuses not solely on value protection, the traditional focus of risk management, but also value creation.
We are looking at a future where audit can be a catalyst for increasing value in an organization, where it can be a conduit for getting information from the staff, where a lot of ideas exist, to decision makers.” He explained that for this to happen, “We have to transition audit from being seen as the ‘corporate police’ to being a strategic partner to the different lines of business.”
“I see a good future for TSTT, a profitable future where anyone who can get in on that ground floor will have a great opportunity.”
