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Bijal Desai

Chief Risk Officer

I am a strategic and commercially oriented risk, internal audit, and compliance executive, with over 30 years of experience within the financial services industry. Having worked in both Australia and the UK, I have occupied a number of senior leadership roles across an array of renowned organisations including, KPMG, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Macquarie Bank, and Woolworths Group. During this time, I have had the opportunity to meaningfully interact with a myriad of ASX-listed company Boards. In this way, I have provided my insightful yet timely, risk and control advice to facilitate entity’s attainment of strategic objectives and to inform their commercial decision making. Currently, I hold the position of Chief Risk Officer at Smartgroup Corporation, an ASX listed company, that provides salary packaging and novated leasing services to the government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors. In this role, I frequently attend Board and Sub-Committee meetings, whilst concurrently representing Smartgroup as an Alternate Director on the NALSPA (the peak industry association) Board. Having recently obtained my GAICD accreditation from the Australian Institute of Company Directors, I am seeking new opportunities to tangibly apply my skills through the lens of a director’s mindset, thereby enabling my continued professional development. Boards will benefit from my extensive hands-on experience working alongside large-scale, multifaceted businesses, as well as my considerable knowledge regarding corporate governance, accounting, risk management, regulatory compliance, information technology, and strategy.