Madhavan Venkatachary

Madhavan is a Partner and Head of the Assurance department with more than 23 years in the field of audit and assurance services. He has been actively involved in imparting training on audit methodologies to the audit team.

Experience

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with a certificate of merit in Auditing, Madhavan worked in one of the largest private sector banks in India. He joined Grant Thornton in 2003 as a Senior Executive and rose to become a Senior Manager in 2008, and Partner in 2010.

Sector experience

Madhavan specializes in enhanced DATA analytics, developing and working of modelling on IFRS 9 for financial and non-financial institutions, audits of financial institutions, not for profit organisations, various governmental, quasi-governmental and non-governmental organisations amongst others.

Madhavan has undertaken the audits of banks and financial institutions, investment undertakings, manufacturing companies, Government owned statutory corporations such as BDIH, BOCRA, BOCODOL, BIDPA, NFTRC, BNPC, NPF, government aided schools, many of the donor funded audits of NACA, SADC, UNHCR, and also many other companies in Botswana.

Professional qualifications and memberships

Madhavan is registered as a ‘Certified Auditor of Public Interest Entity’ with Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority (BAOA) since its inception. He is also a fellow member of BICA and a fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He was a committee member of the Public Sector Committee of BICA and is currently a trainer under the Audit Centre of Excellence for audit methodologies of GTI in Southern Africa

Madhavan is also the champion on Grant Thornton International audit tool Voyager and audit methodologies in Botswana.

Technological proficiency

Madhavan has extensive experience operating various software to execute audit methodology, such as IDEA (data analysis), LEAP (Grant Thornton patented tool for identification of financial statement risks and linkage to the processes and internal controls established to address those risks) and TeamMate (audit workflow). Furthermore, he is also proficient in using Microsoft Office applications to ensure quality of work.

Community involvement

Madhavan has been a member of the Private Business Growth Awards internal judges panel since 2016 and has headed it since 2017. Presented in association with Business Botswana and Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC), this initiative is Grant Thornton’s biggest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity that encourages and honours the development of growing private businesses in the country and led to a partnership with USAID Trade Hub to present the “Botswana Exporter of the Year” awards.

Madhavan participates in Grant Thornton’s CSR initiatives such as recently supporting Government’s Digital Transformation Strategy within the education sector by sponsoring a state-of-the art imported tech panel – a first for public schools in Botswana. Over the years, Grant Thornton has supported various local communities paying special attention to the upliftment of education in Botswana.

In his personal capacity, Madhavan actively participates in social events and charity organisations, and is a frequent blood donor in India and Botswana.

Presentations and publications

Madhavan has been a member of Grant Thornton’s corporate Toastmasters club, which has facilitated development of communication and leadership skills. He is the incumbent President of the Club and has also served as President of the club in 2016/17 and 2019/20 and Immediate Past President in 2017/18 and 2020/21. He has achieved “Competent Communicator” and “Competent Leader” status, and has won many speech contests.

Languages spoken

English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada.