Friday's announcement that William J. McDonough, Chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, will be stepping down on November 30 (sooner, if his replacement is found before then), sent ripples of speculation through the accounting community.
Why now? Is there something afoot? Another shoe to drop?
I don't think so. My guess is that the PCAOB is starting to mature, and there isn't the same kind of urgency to keep McDonough satisfied. He's a pretty dynamic fellow, not one driven by the calendar; he's a "young" 71-year-old. As he put it in the PCAOB announcement: “I have a wide range of interests in corporate governance, finance and international affairs and will explore one or a variety of activities in those fields; I enjoy perfect health and have not the slightest interest in retiring, now or ever.â€Â
The rumor mill has buzzed about McDonough's pending departure for months; one story had it that he was interested in running Fannie Mae. Maybe something like that is on his horizon, but I'm more interested in who heads up the PCAOB next. That might tell us more about its status.
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Incidentally, in an interview with the Financial Times, McDonough warned the auditing profession that they shouldn't expect lawmakers to support any legislation that caps auditor liability. "I do not think the American people would support legislative remediation of the auditor's risk until the audit profession has really won back the confidence of the public," said Mr McDonough...