PCAOB Chairman William Duhnke expects to fill the vacant posts at the head of the regulatory board’s various offices before the end of the year.

“I can’t give you a specific date. But our goal is by the end of the year to have all our senior positions filled,” Duhnke said at the Accountants’ Liability 2018 conference hosted by the American Law Institute in Washington on October 18. Duhnke said the board started the process of naming division heads on October 17 when George Botic was named the director of the Division of Registration and Inspections, filling the position left vacant after Helen Munter left in May.

After a wholesale change of the PCAOB’s board members in early 2018, the directors of its major divisions and offices left by the end of May. The departing officials included Martin Baumann, who was chief auditor, Claudius Modesti, the enforcement chief, former General Counsel Gordon Seymour, and Nirav Kapadia, the chief information officer.

Botic briefly led the Office of International Affairs before the promotion. Prior to that, he was special advisor to then PCAOB Chairman James Doty. On October 17, the PCAOB also promoted Liza McAndrew Moberg to run International Affairs. She was previously a senior adviser in the office.

The board is interviewing candidates for the remaining posts, Duhnke said.
“A lot of people want to be the director of enforcement,” he said. “It’s going to be a little bit longer process, but I am pretty confident that by the end of the year, we will have everyone in place.” There is also significant interest in the general counsel post, but fewer candidates have applied to be chief auditor.

“It’s so specific, so specialized,” Duhnke said.

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This story was published by Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting as they reported on ALI CLE’s Accountant’s Liability 2018 Conference. Learn more and purchase the CLE program here: https://www.ali-cle.org/course/ca006