Voice of the CEO: Key Takeaways From GSC
Blogs Anthony Pugliese, CIA, CPA, CGMA, CITP Apr 18, 2025
This week, The IIA hosted our annual Leadership Academy and Global Student Conference (GSC) in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., bringing together more than 450 chapter leaders, students, and educators from over 20 countries around the world. The event was a resounding success, with a collective excitement about the future of the profession and the next generation of internal audit leaders. Through inspiring speaker sessions and interactive workshops, GSC explored the trends shaping the talent pipeline — including the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom and the ongoing evolution of the global internal audit curriculum.
Over the course of the conference, I had the opportunity to listen to attendees and hear firsthand about the challenges and opportunities the profession faces in building a stronger and more engaged talent pool. A common theme of these conversations was the enthusiasm to collaborate, share ideas, and help build a profession ready to face the future.
After taking some time to reflect on the conference, I’d like to share several key themes that emerged in my conversations on the ground, which will be critical for us to consider on our path forward.
Strengthening the talent pipeline must be a top priority. Organizations across the globe face significant economic uncertainty and disruption, rapidly advancing technologies, growing cyber threats, political instability, major regulatory shifts, and much more. Internal audit serves as a vital line of defense in helping organizations successfully navigate change, proactively manage risk, and ensure resilience amid significant disruption.
To ensure the future of the profession, we must continue to invest in the next generation of internal audit leaders. Early career professionals tend to bring fresh perspectives, adaptability, and a strong foundation in digital tools that are increasingly essential in today’s audit environment. With their familiarity with emerging technologies, these new auditors can help the profession navigate evolving risk, driving innovation in how we approach internal auditing.
Encouragingly, the Internal Audit Foundation’s recent Pulse of Internal Audit report shows that staff and budgets are returning to near pre-COVID levels. This presents a key opportunity to accelerate recruitment and reinvest in the talent pipeline to ensure audit functions are equipped to serve their organizations effectively.
Students are drawn to risk mitigation and problem-solving. Understanding what excites the next generation of professionals is essential to building a strong and sustainable recruitment strategy. As part of our ongoing research, the Foundation’s upcoming Pipeline report, releasing later this year, offers valuable insights into how students and recent graduates view the internal auditing profession. Preliminary findings indicate there is strong interest in internal auditing as a career, with students especially excited by the opportunity to identify and mitigate risk and to problem-solve complex issues. At the same time, the research suggests that many students and recent graduates struggle to understand what internal auditing is and the role it plays in organizational strategy.
As we continue to advocate for the profession, we must get better at communicating the dynamic, multifaceted nature of internal auditing, while emphasizing the strategic value it provides to organizations.
Given internal audit’s continued evolution toward strategic alignment and advisory roles, this shift in advocacy and messaging becomes even more important. We have a powerful opportunity to tell a more compelling story, one that positions internal audit as a strategic partner that helps organizations anticipate risk, solve problems, and meet business objectives.
At GSC, attendees and speakers explored new strategies to bridge the gap between the classroom and the workforce to help future practitioners gain a deeper understanding of what internal audit work involves. While revamped exams and curriculum materials are part of this effort, offering students pre-professional, hands-on experiences, such as interactive workshops and in-class simulations, is also key.
A shared responsibility where everyone has a role. Above all, my time at GSC underscored that building the talent pipeline is a collective responsibility. As hiring managers, educators, and practitioners, we each play a part in nurturing the next generation of leaders and shaping a resilient, future-ready profession.
The IIA remains deeply committed to investing in the tools and resources needed to support the next generation of practitioners, including the Foundation’s Global Student Conference Travel Grant, which brought 25 students and nine educators from around the globe to the 2025 GSC. This year, we’re also kicking off a new global initiative to boost awareness of internal auditing as a promising career path for students and graduates. This program will expand our partnerships with universities and build a structured internship prep program to increase student engagement worldwide. We’re proud to work alongside organizations that share this vision and engage in meaningful support of the IIA Foundation. Together we’re opening doors for the next generation of internal auditors.
Events like GSC are key to this mission of building the talent pipeline. GSC offers important opportunities to bring the profession together, regroup on the state of internal audit education and recruitment, and reflect on what’s needed to lead the profession into the future.
I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who made GSC a success this year. Together, we continue to build a future-proof and resilient profession, and I’m incredibly excited for all that lies ahead.
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