We were pleased to welcome Markus Studhalter, the Chief Audit Executive at Barry Callebaut, to the EMEA Recruitment podcast.

“If you work with great people and have a job that you love, and privately things are in order, that helps to remain calm.”

Markus explains to Paul Toms how he learned the importance of maintaining relationships, particularly with family members, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Markus is entering his 24^th year with Barry Callebaut, a company that has given him “different opportunities” over the years to get to know the business from multiple angles. He feels that his current role in Internal Audit would be much more difficult had he not held various positions previously.

Although he admits that the company isn’t always perfectly organised, he has built friendships over the years that help him in these difficult moments and enable him to help others integrate when they join the business.

In Audit, Markus feels that he can look much broader at the business than his prior Finance roles. With this new perspective, Markus finds himself speaking to board members one minute and someone on the shop floor the next. Despite data analytics automating many traditional processes, Markus still believes that the ability to convey messages to the business is more important than ever.

Although Markus himself has a very calm and consultative style, he looks for diversity in his team. When working with internal HR or recruitment partners, Markus is happy to be challenged with a range of candidates, who he tries to get to know on a personal level during the hiring process.

We find out whether Markus has any hidden talents and one of his personal passions, as well as the “tonnes” of podcasts he’s been listening to recently. One of his favourites is How I Built This on NPR, which is hosted by Guy Raz and explores the successes and failures that founders go through when setting up their businesses.

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This episode is also available at: https://emearecruitment.libsyn.com/emea-recruitment-podcast-129-making-the-move-from-finance-to-audit-markus-studhalter

If you’re looking for a particular part of the episode, please use the timestamps below:

01:18: The last thing that made Markus smile
02:44: Prioritising relationships due to COVID
04:29: The advantages of staying with a company
06:35: What has kept Markus at Barry Callebaut?
08:26: His new role in Audit
10:15: Moving from Finance to Audit
15:34: The impact of BI & data on Finance
17:40: Why softer skills are more important now
19:18: Having a mix of personalities within a team
21:40: Investing time in the recruitment process
23:54: Standing out as a job seeker
27:01: What Markus does outside of work
28:09: The podcasts that Markus enjoys
31:22: Dreams for the future
33:29: How to reach out to Markus

Markus is on LinkedIn for those who wish to connect with him.

We’re proud to support Operation Smile, the official partner of the EMEA Recruitment podcast. Operation Smile provides free surgery to children and adults with cleft lip and palate. Find out more about their mission at Operation smile

This episode is hosted by Paul Toms, our Founder, and Rose Jinks, our Senior Marketing Executive.

Learn more about our professional services recruitment through our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/

Or you can find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emea-recruitment-limited/

You can connect with Paul through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultoms/

And follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paul_toms

To provide feedback on the EMEA Recruitment podcast, please email Rose: [email protected]