We asked some of our colleagues about their career paths and why they chose to come back.

Christophe Van Pevenage shares his experience.

I’m a Senior Manager in Technology Advisory and I work mostly within ‘Serve & Protect’. I specialize in IT Audits (both internal and external) but also focus on Governance, Risk and Compliance. Within IT Audit I focus on the Corporate clients: I provide support to the external audit team as part of their audit mandate. A small part of my job is data analytics.

I started at KPMG as a graduate in 2005. I worked in Technology Advisory, which was called Information Risk Management at the time. My main tasks were External IT Audit and SOX attestation work. I stayed there for 4.5 years.

I wasn’t actively looking for a new job, but an offer from Delhaize really appealed to me. It was a multinational with strong family ties and a corporate office in Belgium. At KPMG I had worked on a variety of accounts, but I was missing a long term connection with one company. The position at Delhaize gave me the opportunity to get to know a different side of the business and learn the ins and outs of a company. This is what drove me to pursue the job. The choice was made easier because the opportunity in the audit team, and their vision – was a great fit.

I stayed at Delhaize for 7 years, fulfilling different jobs while I grew in my career, within the department. It was appealing to me at the time to work in a large team. There were over 100 people in the internal audit team. It was a fascinating environment to work in. My functions were international at times too: audits in Indonesia, training and support in the US, working in different European countries… I really enjoyed this.

After 7 years I felt it was time for a new challenge. I didn’t want to lose touch with what was going on in other companies or sectors. Especially in IT, where everything changes and evolves so rapidly. This brought me back to Advisory. To add, consultancy experience combined with in-depth industry knowledge can be a real advantage for clients. The people were the main reason I chose to come back to KPMG. I just couldn’t imagine working in another consultancy firm. I had stayed in touch with several ex-colleagues during those years. And this played a big part in the decision making process. Since returning, the work has been really interesting and the evolutions in technology keep it challenging. Getting back in touch with the network has been great too.

KPMG still carries the same values, which I appreciate. I think they are the right ones. Within Technology Advisory, there has been significant change and growth over the years. We were a team of 25 people when I started in 2005. It’s now a department of over 130. That’s an impressive increase. All these people also brought their own perspectives and knowledge, which makes the department a great place to work.