SEC names new chief accountant
Ernst & Young's vice chairman, Robert Herdman, has been named as the US Securities & Exchange Commission's new chief accountant.
Commission chairman Harvey Pitt said Herdman was well-suited for the role and would ensure effective and co-operative relations between the SEC and the accounting profession. In his position, Herdman will oversee and direct US accountants and their firms, and the interface with national and international accounting communities.
Herdman’s experience includes 28 years at E&Y, chair of the AICPA’s SEC Practice Section Executive Committee and work on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Emerging Issues Task Force.
Pitt said: ‘His depth of experience, in the accounting profession, in the private sector, and at the Commission, means he is most qualified to serve in this critical position. He will be a tremendous resource to us, and will guide us through difficult national and international financial disclosure and accounting judgements.’
The Commission said a key task for Herdman would be to revise and modernise the accounting and financial disclosure system in the US.
Herdman will replace Lynn Turner, who was ranked 18 in Accountancy Age‘s January poll of the fifty most influential people in accountancy and was instrumental in kicking off the debate on the Commission’s audit independence rules last year. Turner left the job in August for a post at the Centre for Quality Financial Reporting at Colorado State University.
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