Fatima Alkhafashi: Elevating Audit Excellence Through Governance, Risk, and Assurance

Fatima Alkhafashi is a highly accomplished internal audit and governance professional whose career reflects deep expertise in internal audit, risk management, compliance, fraud investigation, and advisory leadership. With experience across Saudi Arabia’s aviation, innovation, consulting, and academic sectors, she has built a strong reputation for strengthening organizational controls and advancing audit excellence.

She currently serves as Internal Audit Manager at Saudi Air Navigation Services, where she leads the Center of Excellence and helps standardize internal audit practices across the organization. Her work focuses on building structure, consistency, and capability within the audit function, ensuring that governance processes are effective, modern, and aligned with organizational objectives.

A Career Built On Assurance

Fatima’s professional journey includes impactful leadership roles at NEOM, where she managed enterprise-wide assurance, governance, and compliance engagements. She supported executive reporting, contributed to fraud investigations, and helped improve internal controls across a fast-moving and highly strategic environment. Her work at NEOM reflects her ability to operate with precision in complex, high-stakes settings where transparency and accountability are essential.

Before that, she worked at KPMG Saudi Arabia as an Internal Auditor, gaining valuable consulting experience that broadened her perspective on audit methodology, stakeholder management, and advisory work. This background gave her a strong foundation in professional audit standards and reinforced her ability to adapt to different organizational needs.

Experience Across Diverse Sectors

Fatima’s earlier roles at KAUST also helped shape her operational and analytical strengths. At KAUST Core Labs, she worked in operations and services, contributing to reporting and analysis, while her earlier role as a Patient Service Representative gave her experience in service delivery and organizational responsiveness. These roles helped develop the discipline, communication skills, and attention to detail that continue to support her audit and governance career today.

Her breadth of experience across academic, technical, and innovation-driven environments gives her a practical understanding of how systems operate and where control improvements can create real value.

Qualifications And Continuous Growth

Fatima holds a Diploma in Risk Management, Internal Audit and Compliance from Chartered Accountants Ireland and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management from King AbdulAziz University. She also earned the CMIIA designation from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors and completed training in fraud risk management through the IMF Academy.

These qualifications reflect her commitment to continuous learning and professional excellence. They also show her determination to stay current with best practices in governance, compliance, and audit leadership.

A Trusted Leader In Governance

What distinguishes Fatima is her ability to combine technical knowledge with strategic leadership. She has developed audit frameworks, competency programs, reporting standards, and technology-enabled auditing practices that improve efficiency and decision-making. Her work is not only about checking compliance; it is about building stronger systems that support long-term organizational resilience.

Saudi Women Leaders proudly recognize Fatima Alkhafashi as a strong and trusted leader whose work continues to elevate governance and audit excellence in Saudi Arabia.