GOVERNANCE

Internal Auditing, Cybersecurity Risk, and Pro-Social Corporate Governance

ROLE

Associate Director, Center for Internal Auditing and Cybersecurity Risk Management (LSU)

Active
E. J. Ourso College of Business, Department of Accounting • 2025 – Present

Focus Areas

Internal auditing education and program developmentCybersecurity risk management in enterprise settingsAssurance over AI/ML systems and data governanceBridging academic research and industry practice

RESEARCH PILLARS

Corporate Governance & Assurance

Controls, internal audit, and board oversight for technology-intensive organizations, including AI/ML, data pipelines, and edge/cloud systems.

SOX and internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) for AI-enabled processesAssurance over data lineage, model risk, and concept driftThird-party risk management and vendor governanceBoard reporting and governance metrics

Cybersecurity Risk Management

Operational and strategic risk frameworks for modern threat environments, with emphasis on detection, response, and resilience.

NIST CSF 2.0 alignment and continuous control monitoringSecurity-by-design and secure software supply chainsIncident response readiness and tabletop exercisesHuman factors and organizational resilience

Pro-Social Business & Economic Stability

Designing governance mechanisms that promote long-horizon thinking, social trust, and sustainable value creation.

Executive incentives and long-termismStakeholder governance and trust architecturesMarket microstructure and systemic fragilityMeasurement: governance quality and social outcomes

WRITING & RESEARCH AGENDA

AI System Architecture Best Practices

In Preparation
  • Permission boundaries: bounding AI system permissions to user permissions and where these boundaries commonly fail
  • Data access and infrastructure design patterns: dos and don'ts for secure, auditable AI systems
  • Data normalization and standardization challenges in probabilistic systems
  • The tension between probabilistic AI systems and deterministic result requirements: architectural approaches to managing uncertainty

Governance Metrics that Matter

Research Phase
  • Leading indicators of governance failure vs lagging outcomes
  • Quantifying board oversight quality
  • Operationalizing pro-social governance in KPIs

Cyber Resilience as Economic Infrastructure

Planning
  • From compliance checklists to resilience engineering
  • Measuring recovery capability and organizational antifragility
  • Ecosystem dependencies and concentration risk

INDUSTRY & ACADEMIC COLLABORATION

Interested in internal auditing, cybersecurity risk, or pro-social governance collaborations? I work with practitioners and researchers to build resilient, trustworthy organizations.

Email:
wes.ladd@polariseco.com
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/wesleyladd
Current Focus:
Internal Audit, AI Assurance, Cyber Risk, Governance Metrics

© 2025 Wesley Ladd. All rights reserved.

Last updated: 3/3/2026