Arun Sadhoeram, one of our newest hires as senior audit manager, started at Reanda this year after having worked in Suriname for almost five years. We talked about his journey and his passion for audit.
Taking the leap
“I was born in Utrecht and my parents are from Suriname,” Arun starts. “When I had the opportunity to go work in Suriname, I thought, why not try it. I’ve been there several times on vacation and I always loved the people and their mindset. It’s more relaxed there.”
Contacts in Suriname were fostered for quite some time. “I think it started in 2007,” Arun muses. “I got in touch with a firm to see if they had any vacancies. But at the time I was still finishing my studies to become a chartered accountant. Once you’ve finished your studies, the firm said, you have to come to us. I thought it could be a good start to something.” But after that Arun didn’t go back to Suriname for a while and mainly focused on his studies and his work. “I had a good time at my current employer and was on track to become engagement partner. There was no reason to put that on hold. Years later I contacted the firm in Suriname again and that really got the ball rolling. I passed my exams and in 2019 I took the leap and flew to Suriname.”
“Suriname is a melting pot of different cultures and I learned a lot about all of them. The way they think, the way they act, the way of life.”
A melting pot
As an old colony of the Netherlands, the official language in Suriname is Dutch. “A lot of young people there used to go to the Netherlands to become a licensed auditor and gain some work experience. For me it was the other way around.”
The country is home to a variety of different cultures. “I had a great time there,” Arun says. “I learned a lot of new things of course, the experience made me grow as a person. The first engagement I worked on was quite a challenge and I had to get used to the culture as well. Ultimately, what I liked most about Suriname was the diversity, all the different cultures. We worked together and we were one. We celebrated our holidays and there were quite a lot. We had the Javanese people, Hindustanis, Creoles, Chinese, natives, and they all had their own public holidays. Suriname is a melting pot and I learned that’s really an environment I want to work in.”
The Covid pandemic extended his stay. “It’s not that I wanted to leave earlier, but I had been thinking about my future in Suriname and what I wanted in, say, ten years.” Despite the social restrictions during the Covid period, Arun met his wife. And now having to consider what the future would bring not just for himself, but his wife as well, he decided it was time to leave. “It had been great, but it was time to move on.”
A new but still familiar environment
So after about five years living and working in Suriname, Arun moved back to the Netherlands. He reached out to several audit firms and had a good first impression at Reanda. “I had a good conversation with Gerard and everything made me feel at ease. Ultimately, the decisive factor that made me choose Reanda was (and still is) the diversity and inclusion.
“The thing I liked in Suriname, the different cultures, is something I see here as well. Like in Suriname, at Reanda we are all different but we are one. The diversity of our team is something that’s not only accepted but celebrated. We are aware of it every day. That’s the greatest thing and the power of Reanda: We are diverse, we all come from different cultures, but we have the same mindset.”
“We all come from different cultures, but we have the same mindset.”
The same passion
For Arun, audit is more than just a job. It’s more of a lifestyle. His passion is clear to see when he talks about his journey and the job and it’s hard not to get drawn in by that. “It’s not just working on audit. My vision is to motivate people, inspire them to get them as passionate about the job as I am. My energy comes from the people around me and seeing them grow and eventually surpass you. That’s what my philosophy is: get your people better.”
That energy is returned by both Reanda and its people. “I see an eagerness in the people around me. They pick up a lot of new things, like ESG or they work on the methodology, it’s great to see and it makes me want to return that energy. And Reanda as a firm shares the same values, they are creating an environment that allows you to act like that. It’s a young audit firm and we are working on becoming the best. That is also my aim.”
