The SEC Appoints New PCAOB Board
The SEC Appoints New PCAOB Board
The SEC has appointed new PCAOB board members under the leadership of new PCAOB Chairperson Erica Y. Williams. Duane DesParte will continue his service as a Board member and will remain the Acting Chairperson until Ms. Williams is sworn in. Christina Ho, Kara M. Stein, and Anthony (Tony) C. Thompson round out the five person board under the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002.
In June 2021, the SEC had announced the removal of the former Chair of the PCAOB Board William D. Duhnke III and designated current board member Duane M. DesParte to serve as Acting Chairperson. DesParte had been a member of the PCOAB since April 2018. In the same press release, the SEC announced that it intended to replace all five board positions on the PCAOB, and opened the application process directed by the SEC Office of the Chief Accountant. In late August, remaining board members Rebekah Goshorn Jurata and Megan Zietsman jointly announced they would resign by October 1, 2021.
The PCAOB Board has been criticized by progressive groups in Congress and other advocacy groups. In a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler in May, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders demanded the remove of the PCAOB board, citing appointments made by the prior SEC Chair Jay Clayton created a Board composed of “partisan cronies with a deregulatory agenda.” They further highlighted a significant decline in enforcement actions and lack of engagement with advisory groups and investor advocates, among other complaints about both the PCAOB’s and the SEC’s actions in undermining the integrity of the auditing process and capital markets.
View the biographies of each member.
Next Steps
We encourage audit committees, management, as well as our own professionals to remain abreast of changes coming from the new PCAOB board. We further invite you subscribe to BDO’s Center for Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting to receive timely updates, thought leadership and resources on this and other topics of interest.
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