Brian Philbin has been the Assistant Commissioner of the Audit, Evaluation, and Risk Branch and the Chief Audit Executive for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) since January 2012. Prior to that, he had been the CRA’s Chief Risk Officer since June 2010. He is responsible for providing strategic advice and executive oversight with respect to horizontal and integrated enterprise risk management and for ensuring a robust independent internal audit and program evaluation function that is supported by a strong Professional Practices and Data Analysis team. He plays a key role in supporting major strategic and change management initiatives within the CRA.
Brian holds a bachelor of Business Administration from l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales de l’Université de Montréal. He is also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) with over 30 years of public and private sector experience in finance, operations, technology, strategic planning, compliance, governance, audit, and risk management.
Brian began his career as an auditor in an international accounting firm before moving on to more senior financial and operations roles in the private sector, including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager. He has worked in the fields of transportation, financial services, technology, medical devices, and manufacturing. Before joining the CRA in 2010, Brian was a consultant for 6 years, providing risk management, project management, and internal audit related services to a wide range of clients in both the private and public sectors. Brian has successfully matured the enterprise risk management function at the CRA. Under his leadership, the CRA has a strong enterprise risk management capacity that is aligned with and informs robust independent internal audit and program evaluation functions.
Brian has been the CRA’s Public Service Employee Survey National Champion since February 2019. In 2018, he was the CRA’s National Values and Ethics Champion and, from 2010 to 2018, the CRA National Champion for Youth.