During my 38-year career at Deloitte, it was always comforting to know that I was never professionally on my own. Whether I needed advice and/or a consultation on technical or auditing matters, or a subject matter expert to assist me in hashing out (and sometimes identifying) issues, I knew that someone had the experience and knowledge to assist me in coming to the right conclusions. It was also a message sent from the first day to the audit staff – consult, consult, consult. There was no need or reason to go it alone…to be the Lone Ranger.
Why am I posting this? Well, I am pleased to announce that I have entered into a strategic relationship with Risk Masters International LLC (RMI). Consisting of a team of highly experienced IT professionals, RMI is one of the foremost providers of information technology and security services such as IT disaster recovery planning, business continuity management, information security, risk and crisis management, and IT infrastructure assurance.
Founded by former Deloitte IT professionals, they have a strong track record of providing their clients with IT security and recovery solutions. Personally, I worked with their executive principal, Steve Ross, whilst at Deloitte and I am thrilled that he and I agree that there are many synergies between our respective practices and services -- opportunities for us to provide our clients with a broader array of consultative services. (Check out RMI’s website.)
From my perspective, when performing M&A due diligence services, I now have trusted IT security experts to call on to identify and assess that critical risk. I can also envision this expertise being a key component of IPO readiness assessment and execution. And finally, this is an area of incredible focus by boards and other governance functions in an organization – whether public or private – and has been a significant focus of regulators. (See, for example, the SEC September 2105 action against an investment adviser for failing to adopt proper cybersecurity policies and procedures prior to a breach, at www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2015/ia-4204.pdf.)
As Rick said to Louis in the closing scene of Casablanca, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." “Retirement” just keeps getting more and more exciting.