Edward Bernard, a director at LPL Financial Holdings, was elected Tuesday as the next chair of the Financial Accounting Foundation board of trustees, the group that oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
His three-year term will begin Jan. 1, 2023, when he will succeed Kathleen Casey, whose term concludes this year. Bernard is a member of the audit and compensation committees at LPL and is also a director at UTI Asset Management Co., where he chairs the stakeholders relationship committee and is a member of UTI's nominating and remuneration and the social and corporate responsibility committees.
He spent much of his career at T. Rowe Price, which he joined in 1988 as head of marketing for the investment firm's retail business and was later elected to the board of directors in 1999, beginning a two-decade senior executive role. He served as vice chair of the T. Rowe Price corporate board (2007-19), chair of T. Rowe Price Mutual Funds (2006-18), chair and CEO of TRP International (2009-18) and a member of the firm's management committee.
Other industry leadership roles include a two-year term as chairman of the Asset Management Advisory committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2019-21 and, from 2006 to 2018, service on the Investment Company Institute's board of governors and executive committee. He was ICI's board chair from 2009-2011.
"Ed Bernard is an outstanding choice to lead the FAF board of trustees," Casey said in a statement. "He brings decades of knowledge and industry leadership experience to this role and aligns perfectly with our mission to oversee the accounting standard-setting boards as they work to provide useful information to investors and others who rely on accurate, comparable financial reports."
In his new role, he will be overseeing both FASB and GASB as they set the accounting standards used by businesses, nonprofits and state and local governments. "I am honored by the opportunity to lead this important organization," Bernard said in a statement. "Investors and other users of financial reports all over the world rely on information based directly on the financial accounting standards that emerge from our boards' robust and inclusive process. I look forward to working with my FAF colleagues as we oversee the Boards in the fulfillment of their vital mission."
Separately, the FAF also announced Tuesday the newest board member at FASB, Joyce Joseph, who is currently managing director of Capital Accounting Advisory and Research LLC and an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers University. Her term starts July 1, 2023 and she will succeed Gary Buesser.
She began her career at KPMG auditing financial institutions before joining Deutsche Bank and becoming assistant vice president with controllership responsibilities. She also was a vice president at JP Morgan Chase leading SEC reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. She also spent nearly two decades leading research and analysis on financial accounting and reporting matters as a managing director at S&P Global Ratings before founding Capital Accounting Advisory and Research, LLC.
In addition to advisory roles with FASB and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, she is a board member on the American Institute of CPAs' board of examiners, setting policy for the CPA exams and shaping the future of the accounting profession and its members.
"On behalf of the FAF board of trustees, I am pleased that Ms. Joseph will join the FASB. She is an accomplished financial leader who has demonstrated substantial expertise in technical accounting with a focus on investor advocacy," outgoing FAF chair Kathleen Casey said in a statement. "She brings a unique depth of understanding of the standard-setting process and its relevance to the financial investor, having served on the FASB's Investor Technical Advisory Committee and on the PCAOB Standing Advisory Group."
She is currently working on a dissertation while pursuing a doctor of business administration degree at Rutgers Business School and will work to complete that degree in 2023.
In other FAF news, the trustees also reappointed Elizabeth Pearce as chair and Robert Hamilton as vice chair of the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council, respectively. Both will serve terms starting Jan. 1, 2023 and concluding Dec. 31, 2024, at which time they will be eligible for reappointment for an extra term.
