The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named the members Monday of its two new advisory bodies, the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group, and scheduled their initial meeting dates.
The selection of the members came after the board started a nomination process in January. These will be the first meetings of outside advisory groups for the PCAOB since 2018. The board had come under criticism for limiting its interactions with outside stakeholders, including its former Investor Advisory Group and Standing Advisory Group. That was one factor that led to a shakeup at the board last year, when the chair and three other members were replaced by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Standing Advisory Group has been renamed the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group and has an expanded charter.
"We are very grateful to the individuals who have stepped forward to serve on our advisory groups,” said the PCAOB’s new chair, Erica Williams, in a statement. “The extraordinary expertise, experience and perspective of the members of both these advisory groups will aid us immensely as we pursue our mission to protect investors and further the public interest.”
The board also announced the inaugural meetings of both the IAG and SEIAG: The first public meeting of the IAG is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8. The first public meeting of the SEIAG is scheduled for Wednesday, June 15.
The advisory group members’ service starts right away. Information about the operation of these groups can be found in respective charters for the
PCAOB board member Kara Stein, a former SEC commissioner, has been appointed to serve as the acting IAG co-chair, while the PCAOB is actively looking for an investor advocate position for the group. The investor advocate, once hired, would serve as the IAG’s board-appointed co-chair. Barbara Vanich, acting chief auditor of the PCAOB, will also function as chair of the SEIAG, according to the terms of the charter.
“Kara’s experience as an SEC commissioner, where she advocated for strong investor protections and rules that put investors first, will serve the IAG well until we fill the investor advocate position,” Williams said in a statement.
There is some overlap among the two advisory bodies' members, including former SEC chief accountant Lynn Turner and CFA Institute head of financial reporting policy Sandra Peters joining both groups, as are Council of Institutional Investors general counsel Jeffrey Mahoney and University of Delaware accounting professor Jennifer Joe.
The PCAOB selected the following members of the Investor Advisory Group, with terms expiring Dec. 31, 2023: James Andrus, Mary Bersot, Jack Ciesielski, Jennifer Joe, Christine O'Brien, Sanford Rich, Gina Sanchez, R. Harold (Hal) Schroeder and Lynn Turner, and — with terms expiring Dec. 31, 2024 — Alicia Damley, Parveen Gupta, Jeffrey Mahoney, Amy Copeland McGarrity, Sandra Peters, David Pitt-Watson, Nemit Shroff, Ashwinpaul (Tony) Sondhi and Gary Walsh.
The Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group members, with terms expiring Dec. 31, 2023, include Christine Davine, Susan DuRoss, David Fabricant, James (Jim) Hunt, Jennifer Joe, Josh Jones, Melanie Senter Lubin, Steven Morrison, Dane Mott, Diane Rubin, Kecia Williams Smith and Lynn Turner, and — with terms expiring Dec. 31, 2024 — John Bendl, Preeti Choudhary, Brian Croteau, Ron Edmonds, Margaret Foran, Robert Hirth, W. Robert Knechel, Sara Lord, Jon Lukomnik, Jeffrey Mahoney and Sandra Peters.
