Madhavan Venkatachary

Madhavan is a Partner in the audit assurance team with more than 22 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

He specializes in the 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 BIH, 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.

His clients in the financial institutions include Bank of Botswana, Bank of Baroda Botswana Limited, Bank SBI Botswana Limited, and Bank of India Botswana Limited.

Professional qualifications and memberships

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

He is a committee member in the Public Sector Committee of BICA and a National Training Partner / facilitator in the Sub-Saharan Africa Grant Thornton training academy.

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

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.

Madhavan is also involved in various other CSR activities of Grant Thornton in Botswana, the latest being Tshwaragano Primary School adopted in line with the “Adopt a school” program.

In his personal capacity, Madhavan actively participates in social events and charity organisations in his personal capacity too, 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 since 2014, which has facilitated development of communication and leadership skills. He served as President of the club in 2016/17 and Immediate Past President in 2017/18. He has achieved “Competent Communicator” status, and is winner of the 2015 Botswana Area Prepared Speech Contest.