The Securities and Exchange Commission has named a new leadership slate for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, appointing Jim Logothetis as chair and adding Mark Calabria, Kyle Hauptman, and Steven Laughton as board members.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins emphasized the importance of investor protection, efficiency, and a renewed focus on the board’s statutory mission during the leadership transition.
Former PCAOB chair Erica Williams cautioned against assuming that changes in the regulatory environment translate into reduced scrutiny, stressing the persistence of legal and compliance risk beyond enforcement cycles.
Williams urged organizations to treat control assessments as ongoing rather than episodic and emphasized the importance of holding external auditors to clear expectations.
Board member Christina Ho, who chairs the PCAOB’s Technology Innovation Alliance Working Group, spoke candidly in an interview about internal challenges around the pace of change, communication, and execution.
Ho advocated for technology advancement in audit oversight, noting the need for standards to evolve alongside data analytics and AI, emphasizing the importance of responsibility and caution in adopting new technologies.
Ho formally notified the SEC of her intention to resign from the PCAOB, describing herself as a “credible lone dissenter” who helped block potentially harmful standards and pushed for greater focus on emerging technologies.
With new members being installed and Ho preparing to exit, the composition of the reconstituted board offers insight into how internal discussion may take shape, with a focus on skepticism and diverse perspectives among board members. In this week’s “Run the Numbers”, host CJ Gustafson interviews Dan Griggs about Intercom’s AI-powered customer service. Griggs discusses generative AI, shifting from experimentation to product development, and the importance of including emerging factors in forecasting. He emphasizes understanding operational realities and connecting financial targets to execution. Intercom moved to outcome-based pricing for its AI agent to align price with value.
Griggs stresses the importance of keeping core metrics top of mind for finance leaders. Understanding how work happens across the organization, sales workflows, and system friction is crucial for connecting financial targets to execution realities. By adopting outcome-based pricing for its AI agent, Intercom aimed to align price with value and lower barriers to adoption.
Read more at Yahoo Finance: The impact of new leadership at the PCAOB: Trial Balance