Erin Banet

Tom O’Reilly: Tell me, Erin—given that you would have been successful in any career path—why did you choose to dedicate yourself to internal audit? What is it about this field that made you decide to make it your home?

Erin Banet: When I was at Deloitte, I was one of those people who genuinely loved public accounting—all aspects of it. I loved the changing dynamics, traveling to different places, constant networking, meeting new people—you name it, I thought it was great. I was in a small market and aspired to become a partner there, knowing I wanted to continue my audit career. However, pre-COVID, it wasn't really possible to get promoted while staying in the same small market indefinitely. With two kids, I didn't want to relocate.

I got lucky when I started reflecting on what I loved about audit and being part of a big company. There was an opening for a director role at Humana in their internal audit department. In the Louisville market, Humana is the largest company. I was already accustomed to being part of a major company at Deloitte—while our local office wasn't large, I regularly traveled to New York, Chicago, or other locations to interact and network. So joining Louisville's biggest company was exciting because I could build upon what I enjoyed at Deloitte.

I approached it pragmatically: I wanted to stay in Louisville, and here was this huge company with an internal audit director position. The CAE had a similar background to mine, though this wasn't the traditional path for someone in internal audit. I hadn't considered internal audit before, but I realized I could bring many things I loved from external audit into this role.

There were some key differentiating factors. I'm still doing varied work in an ever-changing environment—no two days are the same—but now I'm at one company, building deeper relationships with the same people. That was a welcome change. In internal audit, we can make an even bigger difference. While we still do important work with financial statement audits and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, we also provide advisory services that impact our strategy and focus areas. At Humana, our goals center on improving member care and integrated health outcomes. Our audits align with this strategy, which is especially meaningful since we all have aging parents or grandparents. It's more about giving back than just conducting standard financial audits.

The main things that kept me in audit are my love for constant change, even within the same company, and my aversion to repetitive work like monthly closes. That just wasn't for me, though it suits others well. I thrive on networking, growing, and learning new things. Audit provides these opportunities, whether developing within a company or exploring different internal audit roles.

Tom O’Reilly: What's the most rewarding part about being a CAE at a Fortune 100 company? Is there anything different from what you've already shared?

Erin Banet: Let me expand on what I mentioned earlier about how rewarding this work is, given our mission and goals. For example, we recently conducted an audit of our call center operations, examining our response times and service quality. Getting to dive into the details and understand the different situations our members face, seeing how our processes work, and finding ways to improve them is incredibly meaningful - especially when we see the direct impact it has on our aging population.

Tom O’Reilly: You started as a director in 2018, and within about four years you moved into the CAE role. Can you share how you planned and achieved such a remarkable advancement?

Erin Banet:

Networks are incredibly important, both internally and externally. Throughout my career, I've learned just how powerful networking can be. When the CAE role became available, I had strong internal advocates—including our audit committee chair—who championed me because they knew my work firsthand. I was likely seen as a safe choice because I was a known quantity.

Building strong rapport with the team was equally crucial. Even with support from senior leaders and the audit committee, I needed to prove myself as an effective leader and team member for HR considerations. Leadership and people management have always been priorities for me, as they were at Deloitte. I plan to maintain this focus because it drives everyone's career growth—and watching team members develop is incredibly rewarding.

Tom O’Reilly: You mentioned the importance of having an internal network. How about your external network—was that helpful in your journey to becoming a CAE?

Erin Banet: Admittedly, I didn't do a great job with external networking when I first came to Humana. At Deloitte, networking had been part of my job—it came naturally. At Humana, while I networked within the company, I hadn't built connections in the broader internal audit world. This changed when I pursued the CAE role. I heavily relied on my network from the Big Four firms, other CAEs, groups like Audit Board, and various service providers we'd worked with. The insights I gained were extremely valuable.

Tom O’Reilly: I want to circle back to something you mentioned about mentoring other Chief Audit Executives. One of your coaching points is to encourage them to discuss with their CAE how they might participate in audit committee presentations and conversations. Could you expand on that? If I were to ask you, as my coach, how should I approach that conversation with my CAE? What would you recommend?

Erin Banet: Let me share a couple of things. First, it's great for CAEs to bring people along—whether their second or third in command—to gain exposure. Hopefully, most CAEs are already thinking about this. I recommend having an open dialogue about whether this is possible, drawing from what I've learned through my networking and mentoring groups.

If direct audit committee exposure isn't possible, there are other opportunities. When we have a major improvement audit or an unsatisfactory audit, it must go to the audit committee. We present what we audited, the themes we identified, and what led to our opinion. Management then presents their remediation plans. This creates a perfect opportunity to bring in team members. We provide coaching on appropriate communication levels for these presentations.

We also have other initiatives that create opportunities. For example, we're developing a belt program for training and development. Any strategic initiative that advances the internal audit department can be shared with the audit committee, giving team members valuable exposure.

Another successful approach we tried this year was having our audit committee chair conduct a roundtable with our entire team. While it wasn't one-on-one interaction, it allowed the chair to engage with our team, observe who asked questions, and see their thinking process. Our team really appreciated this opportunity.

Tom O’Reilly: With your success and how you achieved it, you make it seem straightforward—but I'm certain that being a Chief Audit Executive isn't easy. What are one or two of the hardest things about the role that aspiring CAEs might not know about? What would you warn them of?

Erin Banet: I've thought a lot about this question, and my honest answer is that the CAE role can be quite isolating within a company. This stems from our need to maintain independence and objectivity. Sometimes we have to deliver audit results that aren't popular with leadership—it's not about winning points, but about doing what's necessary. While we're communicating findings to the audit committee and fulfilling our responsibilities, we also need to balance being effective partners to the business.

This has led me to actively build more internal relationships and networks. Even more importantly, I've found tremendous value in connecting with other CAE peers. These networks provide opportunities for deeper connections, brainstorming, and benchmarking, which helps bring everything together. For example, this year I had to make a recommendation to the audit committee that, while appropriate, wasn't particularly popular within some areas of the  company. The audit committee praised the work, but the situation really highlighted how this role can feel isolated when you're doing your job correctly.

Tom O’Reilly: I'd like to dig a bit deeper into this on a daily and monthly basis. How do you think about maintaining the right balance? You mentioned your CAE networks provide different perspectives that you can apply at Humana. Given that you're in the third line of defense—which requires independence—yet you're also building relationships, how do you monitor whether you've struck the right balance?

Erin Banet: It's a great question. I think it's about constantly working to have a seat at the table and being part of those discussions. Building trust with leadership isn't always easy, as I mentioned, but it's crucial to keep working at those relationships. For example, we just had a fall leadership forum last week—I spent most of the three days with our insurance group specifically to build stronger relationships there. Someone made a joke about it—which I understand was meant to be funny—saying "You're sitting at this table, but you're internal audit, so hopefully you have your networking hat on rather than your auditor hat."

This really highlights the balance we need to strike. I'm part of this company and its strategy, so we should have a seat at the table as trusted advisors. However, as the third line of defense, there are times when our review outcomes might not be what everyone wants to hear. As I mentioned, whenever we have a major improvement-needed audit, it goes to the audit committee. While this process could be viewed as "getting called to the principal's office," most teams in our company actually see it as positive. That's because we approach it from a constructive place—everyone recognizes that when something needs fixing and requires audit committee attention, we're not pointing fingers. We're all working together toward a solution. What I've learned is that with proactive, timely communication, these situations resolve smoothly without hard feelings.

Tom O’Reilly: You mentioned upskilling and training as one priority. As you look ahead to 2025, what are the two or three foundational priorities for your team?

Erin Banet: Upskilling and training is one of our biggest priorities. We recently kicked off a skills assessment to understand what our team members want and need to learn, and where they hope to develop in their careers. This development planning is a major focus for 2025, along with data and analytics. While many organizations are incorporating generative AI, we're currently limited in our tools, so we're focusing more on digital and data analytics strategy.

A couple of years ago, we partnered with several firms to identify where we could get the most value from data analytics, primarily focusing on SOX compliance. We've successfully implemented those initial improvements, and in two weeks, we'll have additional brainstorming sessions about our 2025 data analytics strategy. This will include our traditional internal audit areas like department methodology and reporting.

We're also transitioning from our traditional annual audit plan approach. Currently, our team conducts over 200 conversations with company leaders for risk assessment in the later part of the year, followed by a manual process to create the audit plan. Starting in Q1, we'll use AuditBoard to implement a dynamic risk assessment survey that will run regularly throughout the year. While we may be slightly behind others in making this shift, we're confident this change will help reduce year-end pressure by making risk assessment more continuous.

Tom O’Reilly: Is the type of is the risk assessment changing from the questions that you're asking, or is it just more the frequency with which you ask and get information both,

Erin Banet: It's a bit of both. We use fairly standard questions that align with what we see when benchmarking against others. For the survey, we're making the questions more specific since it's different from a one-on-one conversation. Beyond that, we're mainly focused on getting more frequent updates and making our approach more agile.

Tom O’Reilly: What motivated your emphasis on upskilling and training?

Erin Banet: One of the biggest findings from our annual Humana engagement survey this year was that employees wanted more training and career development opportunities. While these aren't always connected, they can be—especially when you combine development plans and skills assessments to help people identify their career goals. This also aligns with their desire to learn more about internal audit topics and industry trends. By bringing all these elements together, we can boost team engagement while expanding our collective skill sets.

Tom O’Reilly: As someone who's hired many people throughout your career, both at Deloitte and on your team at Humana, I imagine you look for certain qualities during interviews—both spoken and unspoken. What's your secret sauce? When you're interviewing a candidate, what makes you think, "Alright, I think I'm going to make this person an offer.”

Erin Banet:

Another crucial quality is proactiveness, which again shows through their interview stories rather than their resume. And then there's attitude—a positive one is essential. At Deloitte, it amazed me how many candidates came through seeming like they didn't want to be there. My team knew that if an interview was unusually short, it probably meant no offer was coming. These qualities remain what I look for today.

I just conducted interviews this week, and it reminded me of some other important factors. While you don't always need to wear a suit nowadays—especially post-COVID—presentation still matters. Coming in looking like you really want the job makes a difference. Professional preparation is also key. Whether it's having questions ready or conducting yourself appropriately in the interview setting—these things make a big impact. These recent interviews brought back many of these traditional values that I've always considered important.

Tom O’Reilly: Following that same line of thinking, when you're evaluating team members for career advancement and increased responsibilities through promotion, what key qualities do you look for in a candidate before moving them from staff to senior, or senior to manager?

Erin Banet: We follow a competency model rather than doing inline promotions. Unlike at Deloitte, where you might become a manager after three years if you were ready, here we require an open position before starting the promotion process. We coach people through our competency models, evaluating whether they're performing at or exceeding their current level. When I'm considering someone for promotion from senior to manager, I look for them to actively seek management opportunities, even if it's just managing certain aspects of an engagement. They might volunteer to lead our annual interns or become formal coaches. What's really important to me is seeing them think ahead, understand the competencies and job requirements for the next level, and demonstrate that proactive, hardworking mindset by already performing aspects of that higher role.

Tom O’Reilly: Looking ahead three to five years, what essential skillsets will candidates need—whether they're new hires or current team members seeking advancement—to thrive on Humana's internal audit team or any internal audit team?

Erin Banet: I believe having a robust, strategic approach to data usage and big-picture thinking will remain extremely important. From an internal audit perspective, core skills like people leadership and audit methodology will always be essential, but we need people who think strategically and want to understand the broader company context. We need innovative thinkers who ask "How can we do things differently?"

For example, I interviewed someone this week who went beyond just addressing the job description. He outlined what he would do from a department perspective and demonstrated big-picture, strategic thinking. That really made him stand out.

The audit environment is changing significantly. With fewer people entering auditing and accounting, I expect we'll see more professionals with operational experience moving into audit roles. We may also see increased co-sourcing and outsourcing to firms. At recent conferences, I've been fascinated by how many organizations have shifted to using more firms simply because internal talent isn't available—people aren't entering the field like they used to. Looking ahead three to five years, we'll all need to get creative with our talent strategies.

Tom O’Reilly: Let's say your friend is interviewing for a CAE role. What advice would you give them to succeed in the interview process?

Erin Banet: Leveraging your network is my biggest piece of advice. If you're aiming for a CAE role within your company, your network is essential—you need those "table pounders" who will advocate for you. Beyond internal connections, my relationships with the Big Four firms proved invaluable in pursuing the CAE role. They offered mock interviews and helped me prepare thoroughly. Their questions challenged me to think differently and consider new perspectives. While we all strive to stay current on internal audit developments, these relationships and the real-time feedback from practice interviews were crucial in securing this role. I would definitely use this approach again in the future.

Tom O’Reilly: Let me circle back to something you've mentioned twice now - I love the term "table pounders." In one of our previous interviews, someone discussing executive advocacy emphasized the importance of having both mentors and sponsors. I'm curious, how did you cultivate those table pounders for you?

Erin Banet: Honestly, I think it came from real experience and being a true business partner. I recently spoke with someone on my team who wants to become a CAE. They're eager to network and build mentoring connections, which are valuable—these personal connections help people get comfortable with your brand and who you are. But that's not enough. People need to see you in action to trust you.

One of my strongest advocates, besides the audit committee chair, was our CIO. A year into my career at Humana, I took over IT auditing. While I had some experience from Deloitte, I didn't have deep expertise. So I approached it humbly, telling him upfront that I was learning and wanted to be a good partner who deserved a seat at the table. We had room for growth in that space—we shifted from heavily focusing on SOX compliance to broader internal audit work. Through this process, he became not just a mentor for my career but helped our entire department advance. Looking back a year later, we went from zero IT audits to completing 10 that first year and 20 the next. We continuously built our brand and trust. Yes, they were getting audited more and had more findings, but it ultimately benefited them by helping mitigate the risks we identified.

Tom O’Reilly: Over and above anything already mentioned, is there any additional those in Internal Audit or Sarbanes Oxley who are seeking to develop and advance their career?

Erin Banet: I recently had a mentoring conversation with someone on my team. I took off my Chief Auditor hat and spoke purely as a mentor and leader. She's early in her career but aspires to be a CAE while staying in our local market. I suggested creating a vision board mapping out all the companies in Louisville and their CAEs. This would help her network strategically—reaching out to these leaders, building relationships, and learning from their experiences. Most executives are happy to meet for coffee when approached professionally.

The vision board helps clarify where you are and where you want to go. By understanding others' career paths, you can identify what resonates with you. While my story might work for some, others might find different paths more inspiring. That's why exposure to various experiences and perspectives is valuable.

I do considerable mentoring—I just connected with my two new mentees today—and we discuss various career navigation strategies. One eye-opening realization has been that while I regularly network with peers at other companies, my team members often don't. This networking gap extends beyond just aspiring CAEs—it's crucial for everyone's current and future roles.

Though there aren't many formal mentoring opportunities between companies, I believe we should encourage more cross-company connections among auditors. You can learn so much from peers while respecting confidentiality and avoiding sharing sensitive information.

Tom O’Reilly: Tell us something fun, a little bit about yourself that a lot of people that you work with, either Deloitte or now at Humana, don't know about you.

Erin Banet: In high school, I loved to cook, bake, and make candy. I actually started my own candy business that continued through college. When I moved to Louisville, it naturally fizzled out, but I really enjoyed running it. At one point, I considered opening a full-scale business instead of pursuing my current career path. Though I'm happy with how things turned out and don't regret my choice, it was a fun venture while I had it.

Tom O’Reilly: What type of candy?

Erin Banet: I made all kinds of candy. The biggest business was during Christmas time. I made fudge, various cinnamon candies, and cream candy—which was very popular where I'm from. These were all traditional family recipes that I turned into a business.

Tom O’Reilly: What a great story, Erin. This is fantastic, and now I’m hungry.