The African Development Bank is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Maurice Goddard as the Auditor General, effective 16th May 2022.
Mr. Goddard, a British citizen, is an Executive Internal Audit, Risk Management and Finance Leader; with significant international business experience, gained over a 33-year career to-date. His experience spans a wide range of activities, with a particular focus on financial services, regulated industries, organisations experiencing transformative change and those empowered by technology. He has held a number of financial regulator approved person roles in the United Kingdom.
He brings extensive internal audit and risk assurance expertise in financial services, including controlling the management of regulatory change, governance frameworks, market risk, risk-based capital models, financial systems and controls and payments technology. He has also taken great delight in helping teams grow professionally, by creating positive and supportive cultures to enable colleagues to fulfil their potential and give their best. Establishing, building and developing audit functions to deliver insightful and relevant commercially framed assurance and advisory work, has been the mainstay of his career.
Mr. Goddard is joining the Bank from Astellas Pharmaceuticals, a global Top 20 pharmaceutical company, where he was Executive Director, Head of Internal Audit - Group 2 (EMEA). In that role, he undertook an internal audit effectiveness review, restructured and strengthened the regional internal audit function and subsequently contributed to the globalisation of internal audit within the Company. He also was the EMEA Regional Internal Controls Assessor (RICA) for three annual cycles of JSOX financial compliance testing and reporting, a Japanese Nikkei Listing Requirement.
Prior to working at Astellas, Mr. Goddard gained significant global financial services and capital market experience in Insurance (Life, Non-Life & Lloyds Market), payments, banking, securities broking and investment funds. He also held senior leadership positions at UK Payments (Head of Internal Audit) (2017) where he rebuilt the Internal Audit function to provide valuable assurance to the Boards of the Approved Payment Scheme Companies and Bank of England Regulators over key elements of the critical national payment infrastructure.
At Prudential Plc, Mr. Goddard joined as the Internal Audit Director for UK & Europe (2004) and subsequently became the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy of the Group-wide Internal Audit Function (2007).
His key achievements were the integration of the Egg Bank internal audit capability into the insurance business and the creation of the Group- wide Internal Audit function, which strengthened Board oversight.
Mr. Goddard also held senior positions at RSA Plc (UK Chief Internal Auditor), Cox Insurance Holdings Plc (Group Head of Internal Audit), the Prebon Group Limited (Group Internal Auditor) and the Gerrard Group Plc (Head of Group Internal Audit). In some of these roles he undertook activities broader than a purely internal audit remit, such as due diligence work for M&A transactions, Business Unit viability reviews, and the Project Management of commercial disputes with a view to international arbitration. He has also worked at the Chase Manhattan Bank and J Sainsbury Plc in various roles earlier in his career.
Over the years, he has been privileged to serve as an independent non-executive with the CGIAR, a number of government agencies in the UK and has been a Trustee Director of a UK registered Charity.
Mr. Goddard is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of Certified Public Accountants (Australia). He holds designations as a Chartered Global Management Accountant, Chartered Internal Auditor and Certified PRINCE 2 Practitioner. He was educated at Wellington School, holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Bristol (1988) and a Master's degree in Contemporary History & Politics from Birkbeck College, University of London (2006).
Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Goddard said: "I am delighted and honoured to be joining the Bank and contributing to delivering its mission in this leadership position. Internal Audit is a key element of the Bank's governance structure and enterprise risk management framework. I look forward to supporting the Bank's initiatives and activities through the provision of reliable, independent, objective and commercially framed risk and controls assurance and advice in this area".
Commenting on the appointment, the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said: "I am delighted to appoint Mr. Maurice Goddard as Auditor General of the Bank. Maurice is a respected and seasoned audit professional, who will lead the Bank's Internal Audit team to provide independent and objective assurance and advisory services, to improve the Bank's operations and processes".
