Thijs Smit, IIA The Netherlands

Chairman of the Advisory Board in the Netherlands

Thijs Smit is a seasoned auditor with 32 years of experience in Internal Audit of which more than 20 years in leading and managing internal audit professionals in operational, financial, IT and special audits including numerous fraud investigations.

In 1992 he became the Chief Audit Executive of TNT. In 1997 he joined Hoogovens, a Dutch steel company and after the merger of British Steel in 1999 he became the Chief Auditor of Corus and was based in London for a year.

In 2000 he went back to the Netherlands to lead the audit department of Ahold, an international retail company. He left Ahold at the end of 2005. Today Thijs is working as the Chief Auditor of SNS REAAL. SNS REAAL is one of the largest Dutch Financial institutions active in banking and Insurance. The company has approximately 8000 employees and the total assets are in excess of 103 billion in 2007.

Besides the Netherlands Thjis performed audits in Belgium, the UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal.

He has been a Director of the Board of the IIA Netherlands1997-2002 and was the President from 2003-2008.

Nowadays Thijs is Chairman of the Advisory Board in the Netherlands. Ai IIA Inc Thijs was a member of the Professionals Issues Committee from 2002 till 2008. Since 2008 he is a member of the Ethics Committee. He also serves on the Board of IIA Inc since 2008.