"American Dreams Award" - Crain's Detroit 2007
"40 under 40" - Crains Detroit 2009
Partner, Plante Moran
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
Networked with other professionals
University of Missouri-St. Louis, Bsc Accounting
Emile Woolf, London, Chartered Certified Accountan
Board Member, ISACA Detroit Chapter
Limited-edition achievement recognizing early members of Workfolio
Summary
We help our clients extract more and more value from technology, while maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, availability and various compliance regulations.
Raj Patel, a Partner with Plante & Moran, has over 20 years of information technology and financial audit experience in financial institution, service, health care, automotive, manufacturing, and government industries. Raj’s experience includes: IT risk assessments, global/local network security projects, IT audits, application security controls, business continuity management, privacy audits (GLBA, HIPAA) and compliance reviews (Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI-DSS). Raj holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from University of Missouri and is a Chartered Certified Accountant (UK), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). Raj has also presented on security related topics in various white papers, newsletters, magazines and at various conferences. Raj was awarded the “40 under 40” award in 2009 by Crain’s Detroit Business in recognition of his professional accomplishments. Raj is also a board member of ISACA-Detroit chapter.
Information Security Risk Assessment – Assisted numerous clients, in assessing risks from their current use and non-use of technology. Evaluated the controls in place and needed to meet the current risks and developed a multi-year risk based audit plan to continuously evaluate these risks and controls.
Information Systems Auditing – Assisted numerous clients with their internal and external IS audit needs, including compliance with federal, local and regulations including PCI-DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, FFIEC, GLBA and HIPAA/HITECH. Also assisted with the implementation of security best practices and guidelines such as COBIT, ISO 27001/BS 7799, NIST, etc.
Infrastructure Security Assessments – Assisted numerous clients, in managing their internal and external IT security risks. These projects ranged from penetration studies, social engineering to complete development of IT Security Capability models and the implementation of these models. Some of these projects included multiple locations, multiple entities, global networks, etc. Also assisted clients in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.
Systems Integration and Controls – Assisted clients with their systems implementation efforts. These projects included, application selection, quality assurance, application controls design and testing, conversion controls reviews, etc. Systems implementation projects included SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, as well as in-housed developed applications.
SAS 70 Reviews – Performed numerous SAS 70 reviews for clients in the financial, healthcare and service industry. Project included both local and global organizations.
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Executive Education | Professional Services Firms, Harvard Business School
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Manager, KPMG
Information Risk Management
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Bsc Accounting, Accounting, University of Missouri-Saint Louis
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Assistant Accountant, Soneji & Company, UK
Chartered accouting firm in London, UK
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ACCA, Accounting, Emile Woolf College
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Assistant Accountant, EW FACT plc, UK
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Experience Highlights
Plante Moran | Partner | Information Security | IT Consulting
Plante Moran
Manager
KPMG
Assistant Accountant
Soneji & Company, UK
Assistant Accountant
EW FACT plc, UK
Education Highlights
Executive Education | Professional Services Firms
Harvard Business School
Bsc Accounting, Accounting
University of Missouri-Saint Louis
ACCA, Accounting
Emile Woolf College
Causes
Skills
SOC / SSAE 15
15
IT Audit
15
Auditing
17
PCI DSS
3
Privacy Law
5
GLBA
7
Business Continuity Planning
12
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
5
Enterprise Risk Management
10
Internal Controls
17
Internal Audit
10
Assurance
3
External Audit
2
Risk Assessment
10
COSO
10
Information Security
15
Network Security
15
Web Security
5
Questions & Answers
What is your primary Role at Plante Moran?
I lead the Information Security Consulting practice at Plante Moran. We assist our clients with managing their risks with current use of technology.
How long have you worked at Plante Moran?
I joined Plante Moran in January 2002. An opportunity to build the information security practice and better work life balance is what attracted me to Plante Moran. In the last 11 years with Plante Moran, I haven't been disappointed in both fronts.
How have you recently assisted your clients?
Recently, a client was implementing SAP, but their internal audit department didn't have the skills to evaluate automated controls. We assisted our client in evaluating these controls as SAP was configured and implemented. We also trained our client's internal team on SAP controls and how to evaluate them.
In a second example, we have a client with global operations that’s challenged to meet meeting various privacy requirements and a diverse set of information security obligations from its customers. We’ve assisted our client for more than five years in meeting these challenges by performing periodic reviews. There’s quite a bit of overlap in the requirements, so we developed a program to test once for the different requirements. And we’ve provided value by efficiently performing security assessments.
Is your practice currently hiring? What do you look for in a potential team member?
Yes, we are looking for IT audit and security professionals. First, we look for relevant IT audit and security experience. We also look for information security certifications like CISA, CISSP, CISM, CRISC, etc. are a plus. We also look for proven client service skills, strong problem solving skills, self starter with high energy, strong communication skills (written and verbal), superior problem solving ability, project management skills and ability to work independently and as part of a team.
