Leslie Kirsch

Leslie is an experienced leader specializing in the use of technology and innovative analytics for internal/external audits and investigations. She currently leads WithumSmith+Brown's center of excellence for audit data analytics, spearheading the firm's analytics training initiatives and related process improvement projects. She is a frequent author and speaker on audit theory, process, and management issues, such as fraud detection and prevention, cybersecurity and information technology, data analytics, audit quality assurance procedures, audit leadership, investigative interviewing, and the evaluation of audit evidence.

She has conducted financial audits, performance audits, and forensic investigations on a wide variety of topics, including conflicts of interest; employee embezzlement and theft; federal contractor/grantee eligibility fraud and integrity issues; federal tax collection program integrity; abuse of government purchase cards, travel cards, and premium class travel privileges; employment of sex offenders and child abusers at schools and child care facilities; passport application fraud; and the manufacture and marketing of herbal dietary supplements. She has extensive experience in designing and executing computer-assisted audit techniques for the identification of fraud using programs such as IDEA and SAS. Her work has resulted in hundreds of referrals to law enforcement agencies, as well as numerous congressional testimonies.

In her free time, Leslie is a doctoral student in Human and Organization Learning with a research focus on leadership as a tool to reduce occupational fraud and build ethical cultures in organizations. Her research has been published in the Journal of Military Education, the International Journal of Human Resource Development, and presented at the Academy of Human Resource Development's Research Conference in the Americas, the University Forum on Human Resource Development, and the International Society for Military Ethics.