Abhijit H. Gowari
Nallasopara
Summary
Experienced IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) professional with 20 years of overall experience, including 18 years of focused expertise in IT GRC. Demonstrated proficiency in managing and supporting a wide range of audits, including SOX, statutory audits, internal audits, and RBI compliance.
Proven ability to lead and manage ITIL and COBIT-aligned processes as a Process Manager, ensuring adherence to industry standards and best practices. Skilled in coordinating effectively between auditors and internal teams, facilitating seamless audit execution and compliance reporting.
Strong organizational and multitasking capabilities of prioritizing tasks and delivering results under pressure.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Lead IT GRC
CSB BANK LTD.
Andheri
01.2023 - Current
- Development and enforcement of IT Policy and Procedures
- Process implementation in ITSM tool
- Control self-assessment for various processes
- Design metrics & reporting framework to measure efficiency and effectiveness
- Gap Assessment of various RBI Master Direction
- SPOC for external audits like RBI IT Examination, Statutory audit, IFC audit, SEBI, NPCI, Data localization etc.
- Regulatory submissions like RBS tranche, KRI - Cyber Security Posture, Questionnaires
- Follow up with stakeholder to ensure timely implementation of regulatory Advisories / Circulars
- Maintenance of evidence and observation tracker for all audits
- Follow up on open observations
- Publish open audit observation dashboard to senior management
- Preparation of Risk Register / Risk questionnaire
- Third Party Risk Assessment
- Perform control analysis and design and validate key controls
- Reporting to senior management
IT Compliance Officer
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD.
Goregaon
03.2016 - 01.2023
- Approval of Policy and Procedures with respective owners
- Measurement of KPI
- Periodic review
- Preparation of checklists
- Control self-assessment for various processes
- Quarterly reporting to the seniors
- SPOC for the Internal Audit Collection and provision of necessary evidences to Audit.
- Publish dashboard on Internal Audit open observations on periodic basis.
- Send reminders to respective stakeholders before TD gets exceeded.
- Sanity check of collected evidences for accuracy and completeness.
- Timely submission of audit evidences.
- Resolve auditor's queries
- Maintenance of evidence and observation tracker
- Preparation of data for various RBI submission like RBS Tranche, Cyber Security Posture-KRI, Regulatory circulars and advisories received from CSITE etc.
IT Governance Manager
HDFC BANK LTD.
Kanjurmarg
09.2011 - 03.2016
- Identifying the areas of potential improvement in existing IT processes to attain maturity.
- Understand Operational challenges and try to close them logically with defined time lines.
- Resolve user queries related to the IT processes.
- Automation of various processes in GRC Tool.
- Facilitating Internal and external audits viz. RBI inspection, statutory audits, and SOX audits for completion of audit.
- Assessing the compliance of IT Processes by performing Test of Design (TOD) and Test of Effectiveness (TOE) in the form of self-assessment from checklist preparation till reporting.
- Developing Risk Control Matrix (RCMs) based on COBIT framework & ITGC Controls.
- Tracking of the observations raised in various audits
SOX Attester
ANB Consultancy (ICICI Bank LTD)
Lower Parel
09.2007 - 09.2011
- Attestation of SOX identified applications
- Follow up on observations
- Submission of Clause 49 basis SOX assessment to the senior management.
- Annual review of PAC (Process / Product approval Committee) notes for the various processes.
- Assists to the various audit teams for audit completion (External, Internal Audit).
- Ensuring the closure of all the open audit points
- Pre audit to identify the gaps in applications before actual audit starts.
- Managing the operational activities for application induction and de-induction in APM.
- Creating dashboards and analytics with the data present in APM.
- Developing enhancements in APM to ensure higher usage and performance in APM.
Junior Accountant (Central Department)
M/s. International Gold Co. Ltd.
Andheri Seepz
08.2004 - 09.2007
- Reporting to system department head for software implementation on production floor.
- Generating production report, gold loss report, rejection report etc. and keeping HOD updated about the same.
- Random auditing of department for physical stock against the stock report generated by the system.
- Executing task given by HOD from time to time.
Education
Bachelor of Commerce - Vasai, Maharashtra, India
Vartak College
Vasai, Maharashtra, India01.2004
Skills
- IT policy development
- IT audit facilitation
- Control analysis
- Risk assessment
- Regulatory compliance
- Process improvement
- Stakeholder management
- Multitasking Abilities
Certification
- Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
- ISO27001:2013 Lead Auditor
- ITIL V3 Certified
- Completed Workshop on CoBIT 5 conducted by ISACA
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 03/06/84
- Gender: Male
- Marital Status: Married
Languages
Marathi
First Language
English
Advanced (C1)
C1
Hindi
Advanced (C1)
C1
Timeline
Lead IT GRC
CSB BANK LTD.
01.2023 - Current
IT Compliance Officer
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD.
03.2016 - 01.2023
IT Governance Manager
HDFC BANK LTD.
09.2011 - 03.2016
SOX Attester
ANB Consultancy (ICICI Bank LTD)
09.2007 - 09.2011
Junior Accountant (Central Department)
M/s. International Gold Co. Ltd.
08.2004 - 09.2007
Bachelor of Commerce - Vasai, Maharashtra, India
Vartak College