Purnima Mishra

Biography

Purnima Mishra is the Chief Accountant of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria based in Geneva, Switzerland. She leads the Global Fund’s accounting, external audit function along with second-line oversight on financial and fiduciary risks. In her current role, she provides authoritative guidance and management judgement under IFRS on accounting policies and external audit of USD 9 billion balance sheet, financial risk management policies and internal control systems to operationalize the Fund’s business model. She also serves as the Secretariat’s focal point for audit and assurance engagements with key donors and multilateral organizations. In her second-line oversight role she oversees routine self-audits, financial due diligence, asset-safeguards checks and fraud-risk assessments through independent assurance providers from Big-4s, private sector audit firms and supreme audit institutions.

She brings over 16 years of extensive experience in implementing IFRS in large, complex NPOs besides another 10 years in US GAAP and other national accounting and regulatory standards. Before joining public health with the Global Fund, she served with the American Red Cross on several international disaster relief and rehabilitation missions. Prior to moving into international financial development , Purnima was an auditor with Deloitte in India providing assurance and business advisory services to large, listed corporations, manufacturing companies, banks and financial institutions.

Outside the Global Fund, Purnima serves as Vice-President Strategy on the Board of the Institute of Management Accountants, Switzerland Chapter. She dedicates her Sundays to teaching Hindi language to children, families and friends of Indian diaspora.

Purnima is a qualified Chartered Accountant from India (ACA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified in Strategic & Competitive Analysis (CSCA) and holds a masters diploma in Insurance and Risk Management (IRM).

In my role as a PAG member I would strive for a reporting framework that takes audited financial statements of NPOs beyond compliance and makes them easy to read, relevant and informative for users and decision-makers. I look forward to bringing my experience in IFRS, donor & grantee audits, multi-stakeholder and governance reporting to promote consistency, trust and transparency through high quality financial statements that enable efficiency, equity and accountability in non-profit financial reporting.’