From 6x National Champion to Fortune 500 Chief Audit Officer - Lori Kaczynski on Leadership and Resilience

She won six Canadian national championships in speed skating and was training for the Olympics. Then, had a car accident at 18. Four knee surgeries. Three years of rehabilitation.Today Lori Kaczynski is the Senior Vice President and Chief Audit, Risk, and Compliance Officer at Graphic Packaging International, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Atlanta. She leads global internal audit, compliance, and enterprise risk management.In this episode, I sit down in person with Lori. We talk about what competitive athletics taught her about discipline and resilience that she carries into the boardroom today. How she moved from a small Canadian town of 5,000 people to building a career in Atlanta with no coaching and no roadmap. Why she hires internal auditors based on soft skills and culture fit before technical ability. The difference between leading audit with an enforcement mindset versus a business partner mindset and why one gets people to call you with their problems and the other makes them hide. The Von Mises framework she uses when people resist change. How a network of 60 Fortune 500 women chief audit executives became her most valuable career resource. What her husband accidentally taught her about networking. And why she is building what she calls a "portfolio career" for what comes next.Whether you are in audit, risk, compliance, or any finance leadership role, this conversation will challenge how you think about what it really takes to lead at a high level.