Michelle Zhou

Michelle Zhou is a Managing Director and Head of Audit for Central Shared Services within the Internal Audit Department at Guggenheim Partners. She has as over 20 years of audit, risk management, and IT experience. In this role, she is responsible for leading and managing the evaluation of the Shared Services control environment which includes Finance, HR, Legal and Compliance. Prior to her current role, Michelle held senior audit roles which were responsible for asset management and insurance businesses, including registered funds, hedge funds, SMAs, annuities investment advisers, distributors (brokers/dealers), transfer agent, private family offices, and insurance companies. Her experience includes working on implementation of new regulatory requirements and remediating regulatory findings as well as managing relationships with C-suite stakeholders such as the CFO, CLO and CCO. In addition to her audit role, Michelle leads Internal Audit’s diversity and inclusion strategy. Before joining Guggenheim in 2012, Michelle was a Deloitte manager and worked on audit and risk management projects at Guggenheim from 2009 to 2012. Due to her stellar performance, she was asked to join Guggenheim to help the Chief Internal Auditor with the design and establishment of the internal audit function. While at Deloitte, Michelle spent seven years with Deloitte’s Enterprise Risk Services group, specializing in internal audit services for the financial services industry. Prior to joining Deloitte, she worked for seven years as a software engineer and later served as the Head of the Underwriting department for one of the largest insurance companies in China. Michelle is an active member in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, serving on the Veterans Initiative Advisory Committee and since 2017, she has led the recruiting and applicant review and selection effort for the Firm’s Veterans Transition Assistance Program (VTAP). She has also served as a steering committee member on the Firm’s Multicultural Employee Business Network. Michelle has been a mentor for the Women’s Innovation and Inclusion Network (WIIN) and the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business and helped lead the effort for the Firm’s association with Ascend, the largest Pan-Asian business professional membership organization in North America.