Avani Desai

NOMINATION HIGHLIGHTS

Avani Desai is CEO of Schellman, the only Top 50 CPA firm dedicated exclusively to IT compliance and cybersecurity. Under her leadership, Schellman has grown to more than 500 professionals serving clients worldwide across 60+ assessment types, including FedRAMP, CMMC, SOC 2, HITRUST, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001, PCI DSS and AI governance. In 2026 she led the firm through a strategic investment from Goldman Sachs Alternatives to expand into healthcare and financial services, pursue acquisitions and grow internationally, particularly in Europe and the U.K.

Avani has positioned Schellman as an independent voice when the industry needs clarity. She has advanced the FedRAMP modernization conversation, including RFC-0036, helped translate CMMC into attestation-ready programs for the defense industrial base, and led Schellman into some of the first AIUC-1 audits of AI agents, giving AI builders an independent checkpoint when buyers and regulators had few options. Her message is consistent: trust has to be earned with evidence, and the earlier it is engineered into a product, the cheaper it is.

A CPA by training, she brings audit rigor to security conversations often dominated by sales narratives, and she is candid about what is not ready, even when that means telling a client its program needs more work. Inside the firm she pairs technical assessors with sector specialists, invests in training on emerging frameworks, and built a mentoring cadence where principals review live work with junior staff so judgment is transferred, not just process. As a woman leading a global cybersecurity firm, she mentors early-career women and insists they have a seat at the table.

Her leadership has been recognized with the Cloud Security Alliance Philippe Courtot Award (2023), CPA Practice Advisor Most Powerful Women in Accounting (2023), Forbes Top 200 CPAs (2024), Florida 500 (2024 and 2025), Consulting Magazine Leaders in Technology (2024) and Women Leaders in Technology (2020), Executive Women’s Forum Women of Influence (2021), and ACBJ Rising Stars (2018).