The Financial Accounting Standards Board has established an Investors Technical Advisory Committee to solicit more input from investors and other users of financial information in the standard-setting process.
The 12 initial members of FASB’s new committee will draw on their strong technical accounting knowledge to help the board identify critical accounting and financial reporting issues, propose new items for the board’s agenda, and provide perspectives on the implementation of new standards. They include:
• Neri Bukspan, chief accountant, Standard & Poor’s
• Jack Ciesielski, president, R.G. Associates
• Michael C. Gyure, accounting research analyst, FTN Midwest Securities
• Adam Hurwich, managing member, Calcine Management
• Mark C. LaMonte, vice president, senior credit officer, Moody’s Investors Service
• Jeffrey P. Mahoney, general counsel, Council of Institutional Investors
• Rebecca McEnally, CFA Center for Financial Market Integrity
• Michael A. Moran, Global Investment Research, Portfolio Strategy/Accounting, Goldman, Sachs
• Janet Pegg, senior managing director, Accounting and Taxation Research, Bear Stearns
• Marc A. Siegel, global director of research; Center for Financial Research and Analysis
• Lynn E. Turner, managing director of research, Glass, Lewis
• Chad Yeftich, senior analyst, Maverick Capital
After an organizational meeting on January 11, FASB expects that the committee will meet quarterly with the FASB staff and at least twice a year, in public session, with the full board.
This new committee is the latest effort by FASB to get insight and input from users of accounting statements. In 2003, it created a User Advisory Council, which includes representatives from individual and institutional investors, equity and debt analysts, lenders and credit rating agencies. Two years later, it established the Investor Task Force, which represents the nation’s largest institutional asset managers. Investors and other users also are represented on the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force, and on FASB’s project resource groups.