Ep 254: Emerging Leader Mentoring Program w/ Alex Rusate

In this episode of The Audit Podcast, we're joined by Alex Rusate, Senior Vice President and Director of Internal Audit at Arrow Financial, and former chair of the IIA's Emerging Leaders Mentoring Program. Alex shares how the program began in 2019, grew so quickly that the IIA brought in full-time support, and has continued to thrive ever since. As both one of the first mentees and later a leader of the program, he offers a unique perspective on its evolution and the benefits it brings to internal auditors. The conversation covers the program's purpose, what it means to participate as a mentor or mentee, success stories from past participants, and how much it has changed over the past six years.   Registration for this year's program is now open and closes September 15 if you would like to get involved.   Be sure to connect with Alex on LinkedIn.   Also, be sure to follow us on our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.   Also be sure to sign up for The Audit Podcast newsletter and to check the full video interview on The Audit Podcast YouTube channel.   Timecodes:   2:47 – AI Prompts and Practical Use Cases 9:00 – IIA Emerging Leader Mentoring Program 12:15 – Alex's Perspective as a Mentee 13:37 – Feedback from Mentees During the Program 15:07 – How the Program has Evolved Over the Years 17:40 – Career Paths after Completing the Program 18:50 - Final Thoughts   *   This podcast is brought to you by Greenskies Analytics, the services firm that helps auditors leap-frog up the analytics maturity model. Their approach for launching audit analytics programs with a series of proven quick-win analytics will guarantee the results worthy of the analytics hype.  Whether your audit team needs a data strategy, methodology, governance, literacy, or anything else related to audit and analytics, schedule time with Greenskies Analytics