The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced the appointment of William D. Duhnke III as Chairman and J. Robert Brown, Kathleen M. Hamm, James G. Kaiser, and Duane M. DesParte as board members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 established the PCAOB to oversee public companies and broker-dealers. The PCAOB’s activities include conducting inspections and pursuing disciplinary actions.
None of the prior President Obama-era board members were reappointed. One departing board member noted that the SEC has never before declined to reappoint PCAOB board members who are eligible for another term. The total replacement of the board may have been as a result of clashes between the prior board and the SEC and the accounting industry.
Chairman William D. Duhnke III has acted as General Counsel to U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and previously served in the U.S Navy. J. Robert Brown has been teaching for 25 years and is currently a professor at the University of Denver. Kathleen Hamm works as counsel for Promontory Financial Group, an IBM company, and previously worked at the U.S. Department of Treasury, the American Stock Exchange, and the SEC. James Kaiser is a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he has worked for 38 years. Duane DesParte will soon retire as Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller of Exelon Corporation. He was previously an audit partner at Deloitte & Touche.