Bikash Prasad is President & Group CFO of Olam Agri

Mkombozi Bosco Karake joined the IFAC's PAO Development and Advisory Group in January 2023, nominated by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (iCPAR).

Mr. Karake is currently the Chairman and Partner of KMD Partners Ltd and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Institute of Governance and Sustainability. He was previously a financial management specialist with the World Bank, Chief Internal Auditor at the Development Bank of Rwanda, an associate with KMPG East Africa International Advisory services and the Chief Internal Auditor at Horizon Group Ltd Rwanda. He has over 18 years post qualification experience in audit, financial management, business advisory and lecturing professional accountancy courses and university financial management modules. He is also a regular contributor to local and international seminars and conferences in areas of his expertise.

Mr. Karake is a member of ICPAR (CPA-R); a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).

Mr. Karake is an active member of the Institute of Internal Auditors-Rwanda having served as President 2019-2020. He is also an active iCPAR member, having served as the chairman of its Disciplinary Commission 2013-2015. He also served as the third president and chairman of the iCPAR Governing Council 2015-2017, re-elected 2017-2019.

Bruce qualified as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa in 2006. He started his career by spending six years with PwC in assurance before taking a three-year hiatus to serve in his local church as a youth pastor. In 2013, he joined the learning & development unit at the Auditor-General South Africa as a manager for technical learning. He graduated with a Master of Commerce (Accounting) in 2016.

Before joining IFAC, Bruce served as Senior Manager of Professionalization at the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E), where he led the establishment of the African Professionalisation Initiative. In this role, he also contributed to various professionalization activities in the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) community. He was a member of the task force that developed INTOSAI’s new auditor competence standard: ISSAI 150. He contributed as a content developer for the INTOSAI Development Initiative’s Professional Education for SAI Auditors (PESA) project.

Bruce joined the IFAC staff in mid-2021 as a Principal. His responsibilities initially included member engagement and being the staff lead to the PAO Development & Advisory Group. In 2023, he was appointed as IFAC’s Head of Accountancy Education.

Themin Suwardy is the Associate Provost (Postgraduate Professional Education) with oversight responsibilities for all Singapore Management University (SMU) Masters programmes, which attract more than 1,500 student each year. Immediately prior to this role, he was Dean, Postgraduate Professional Programme (2016-2021).

Mr. Suwardy joined SMU in 2001 and served as Associate Dean, School of Accountancy (2002-2013) and was the founding programme director of Master of Professional Accounting (2006-2016). Prior to joining academia, he was an auditor with KPMG Peat Marwick after starting his academic career at Monash University, Australia.

Mr. Suwardy has received over 20 SMU and international teaching awards, including SMU Best MBA Core Teacher Award five times, EMBA Most Outstanding Faculty Award four times, and three SMU university-wide teaching awards. He was a recipient of the HP Mobile Technology for Teaching Award (2004), the inaugural CEEMAN's Champion Award for Management Teaching (2010) and the IBM Faculty Award (2017). He was accorded Republic of Singapore's Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2011 for his contribution to education.

Mr. Suwardy is an active member of the accounting profession through his extensive involvement in numerous professional bodies over the years. He was the Singapore Division President for CPA Australia (2013-2014), a Governor of IIA Singapore (2009-2011), Vice-President of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (2009-2013), and other committee appointments in various professional bodies. In 2015, he was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by CPA Australia for his significant and distinguished service and contributions to the accounting profession.

Mr. Suwardy is currently Chairman, GMAC Board of Directors and Vice-Chair, SATA CommHealth. He is a member of Singapore’s GST Board of Review. He has consulted and worked with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA), DFS, Singapore Airlines, KPMG Forensics, HP and IBM, amongst others. He is a frequent commentator and writer for The Business Times.

Katarina Sitar Šuštar, MBA, a Slovenian certified auditor, is currently Senior Technical Advisor at the Slovenian Institute of Auditors (SIA) and a lecturer in financial accounting at the School of Economics and Business, at the University of Ljubljana (SEB LU).

Previously, she was a partner at KPMG Slovenija d.o.o., where she headed the audit department and served as head human resources. She specialised in auditing financial institutions, telecommunication companies, and public sector companies. Currently, she is involved in the practical aspects of auditing and financial accounting as a lecturer and trainer on auditing topics at SIA, as an independent member of the audit committees of the Slovenian Post, Vzajemna Mutual Health Insurance and Sava Re Group. She also acts as a quality control reviewer of regulatory reviews of selected published financial statements of Slovenian listed companies.

This 9^th Colloquium brings together global thought leaders to discuss the “Mind the Gap” project launched by The Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) and engage with stakeholders to stimulate an exchange of views around the public interest in standard-setting and narrow the expectation gap.