By Mark Emmons
Boomi highlights business thought leaders, the trends they see, and the extraordinary things their organizations are doing. We also explore their hot takes on pizza integrations.
Business leaders spend countless hours thinking about risk. How do you recognize it, avoid it, address it? Today, risk rears its head in a multitude of ways, from traditional finance concerns to growing issues around privacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and much more.
That’s why risk management is more critical than ever.
For Waseem Samaan, it comes down to a simple question: What can go wrong?
“That’s the simple definition of risk,” said Samaan, Vice President and Global Head of Internal Audit and Risk at Boomi. “The goal is to strike a balance between taking opportunities and managing potential threats. You’re trying to achieve desired outcomes while also safeguarding against any adverse consequences.”
His role makes him a multi-faceted problem-solver for the high-growth company. The team helps the business identify, assess, and mitigate risk of every kind, ensure compliance, and support the overall operational resilience in a complex business environment. For instance, they played an instrumental part in Boomi’s emergence as the largest independent integration and automation company after the sale by Dell Technologies in 2021 to a pair of private equity firms.
Samaan is also a key player in guiding company culture as the executive sponsor of Boomi’s Pride Group, promoting an inclusive and diverse work environment.
The position of an internal auditor defies the standard image of Certified Public Accountants, Samaan said. For instance, he’s not constantly poring over spreadsheets.
“It’s funny because I don’t spend much time in Excel,” said Samaan, who grew up in suburban Detroit after his family emigrated from Iraq when he was two years old. “It’s more of a jack-of-all-trades. Every single business decision is associated with a risk, and our team ensures we’re always considering it and addressing it when needed.”
Samaan discussed how integration and automation help transform risk into opportunity, the role of auditors as trusted advisers, and the importance of diversity within organizations. Here are some lightly edited portions of our conversation.
How do you explain what you do to friends and family?
Waseem Samaan: Because I’m a CPA, they all think I do taxes. Until a few years ago, my dad would ask me every year, “Can you do my taxes?” And I’m like, “Dad, I don’t even do my own taxes.”
Then what is the role?
Waseem Samaan: Our team oversees financial risk, operational risk, and enterprise risk. We also run the Risk and Compliance Council. So, it’s broad. The baseline is you perform audits to ensure the company is operating efficiently and effectively. You become a trusted advisor to management and optimize processes and controls. You become the eyes and ears of the Board of Directors. What’s cool about the job is that every day is something new and different. It’s not rinse and repeat.
Why are integration and automation essential for reducing risk and increasing compliance?
Waseem Samaan: When you integrate or automate something, the risk of error is dramatically reduced. Think of a payroll Excel file that you upload to your payroll system to be processed. An auditor has to assess what can go wrong. How do I know this file is complete and accurate? How do I know someone didn’t fat-finger something by accident or accurately capture everything to calculate pay appropriately? When you have manual control, there’s an increased risk because stuff can go wrong. When you automate it, the chances of errors are minimal, assuming that you have the proper controls in the systems themselves. It also makes it very efficient. It’s scalable because it doesn’t matter if you have 10 employees or 1,000 because it’s systematic. That’s a simple example of why automation and integration software is music to an auditor’s ear.
How does Boomi make your life easier?
Waseem Samaan: Boomi is great for us. My team is lean. With Boomi’s automation, there’s a huge time savings. In the rules of audit, when you have manual processes, you need to test multiple samples to be comfortable with the accuracy. But when something is automated, you only have to do a test of one. So, Boomi reduces the work my team has to do, and we can concentrate on areas of bigger risk or other significant projects. It’s not just that Boomi reduces the amount of work for our team. We’re much more proactive as a department.
Were you always bound for an auditing career?
Waseem Samaan: I was going to be a lawyer. In a way, this is a hybrid of legal and finance. I took accounting in high school and saw that people kept failing. I didn’t understand why. I’m like, “This is the easiest thing.” In college, I majored in accounting because it’s the language of business. So, I pursued a master’s in accounting, worked at E&Y (Ernst & Young), and then went to Fox (21st Century Fox), and it was the coolest audit gig. I was 24 years old and going on TV and movie sets. It was such a unique experience to travel the world and learn the compliance laws of 40 different countries.
Why the passion for diversity and inclusion?
Waseem Samaan: It’s deeply rooted in the belief that embracing a variety of perspectives enriches the workplace. As an immigrant and someone with ADHD, among many other diverse traits, I understand the value that unique backgrounds bring to fostering innovation and creativity. My personal experiences have instilled in me a commitment to social justice and creating environments where everyone feels valued and heard. In my life, I’ve been able to transform challenges into strengths. For instance, ADHD has become a positive for me in my job, with the ability to multitask. That’s reinforced my belief in the power of diverse thinking and appreciating the strengths that arise from embracing our differences.
Working in entertainment must have been exciting.
Waseem Samaan: Because of my role with the Internal Audit team, we were really well-respected and had full access across the entire company. So beyond being on sets, seeing super-secretive scripts, and visiting places like wardrobe departments, there were also opportunities to attend movie premieres, the Rome Film Festival, and countless parties like the Golden Globes and Oscars. I’m forever grateful to Fox.
What’s something about you we won’t find on your LinkedIn profile?
Wassem Samaan: Auditors get stigmatized: We’re boring, we’re dry. But I’ve learned to be empathetic, not judgmental, and think about walking in anyone’s shoes. As an auditor, the goal is not to be a police officer but to be seen as a value-added business partner who can connect with people and work together to help make our business better and more efficient.
Before we let you go, do you have a favorite pizza integration?
Waseem Samaan: Let me answer that question this way. Everybody wants a little cheese, right? Well, Boomi integration is like the cheese on the pizza because it connects all the toppings. When you have all of these systems across the company, like toppings on a pizza, they’re independent and standalone. They don’t naturally connect. The connectivity of everything coming together as ingredients on pizza is the cheese. And that’s what Boomi integration and automation is for digital systems.
Up Close With Waseem Samaan
Home: Austin, Texas
Education: Master’s degree from USC and a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Oakland University
Certifications: Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and in the process of becoming a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
Career: His extensive background includes Chief Audit Executive at Forge, Global Head of Internal Audit & SOX at Everbridge, Global Audit Manager at 21st Century Fox, and an auditor with Ernst & Young. He’s also a board member and audit committee chair with the Austin chapter of The Institute of Internal Auditors.
Hear Waseem talk about how Boomi solutions are making his day-to-day job easier in our Feb. 13 webinar, “Transforming Risk Into Opportunity: Strategies for Enhancing Operating Efficiency and Compliance.”