Martin Baumann, who served as the finance chief of Freddie Mac as the mortgage lender was trying to recover from an accounting scandal, has been named deputy director of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Office of Research.
After joining Freddie Mac as executive vice president for finance in March 2003, he served as CFO for the embattled company from June 2003 through March 2006, when he resigned.
Baumann is credited with leading the completion of the company’s earnings restatement and later improvements in its financial reporting. “Marty Baumann has been a key contributor to the turnaround currently underway at Freddie Mac,” said Richard Syron, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer at the time it announced Baumann’s resignation.
Before joining Freddie Mac, Baumann spent 30 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he served as partner, deputy chairman of the World Financial Services Practice, and global banking leader. “My decision to join the PCAOB reflects my view of the importance of the integrity of financial reporting to our capital markets” Baumann said. “I was committed to that for over 30 years at PwC, and I joined Freddie Mac to restore accuracy, integrity and reliability to its financial reporting. The PCAOB gives me an opportunity to meld that experience with public service.”
At PCAOB, Baumann “will manage the monitoring and analysis of accounting and auditing principles and related regulatory changes that impact specific companies and industries,” said Phil Wedemeyer, director of the board’s Office of Research and Analysis.
Baumann’s clients at PwC included some of the biggest financial services firms in North America, including Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Prudential Insurance, and The World Bank, Freddie Mac noted when it hired Baumann.