PCAOB Names Deputy Chief Auditor

By Kate Prouty

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced New York State Society of CPAs member Thomas Ray as its deputy chief auditor on May 8.

“I am honored and excited to have been appointed by the PCAOB to advise them on the establishment of professional auditing standards. At the same time, I am humbled by the importance and significance of the responsibility,” Ray said in regards to his appointment.

Ray, a partner at KPMG LLP’s department of professional practice–assurance in New York City, is a member of the Society’s Manhattan/Bronx Chapter. He previously served as director of audit and attest standards at the American Institute of CPAs, following 13 years as an audit professional with Grant Thornton LLP.

Acting as deputy chief auditor, Ray will work closely with Chief Auditor Dr. Douglas R. Carmichael (also once a member of the Manhattan/Bronx Chapter), who is the primary advisor to the PCAOB on policy and technical issues related to public company audits. The chief auditor and his staff report to the board on significant issues related to the accounting profession, while working with other related organizations as well, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the AICPA.

“One of our very first standards-setting priorities is, of course, related to section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. We also are interviewing potential staff to support our standards-setting activities and are establishing an advisory group, both of which are very important to our progress,” Ray noted as important points in his agenda as deputy chief auditor.

An extension of the SEC, the PCAOB is a private, nonprofit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Its mission is to protect “investors in U.S. securities markets and to further the public interest by ensuring that public company financial statements are audited according to the highest standard of quality, independence and ethics,” states its new website, www.pcaobus.org.

“Tom’s (Ray) qualifications combine an extensive technical background in auditing standards and practice with a highly developed concern with protecting investors,” Dr. Carmichael said in a May 8 PCAOB press release.

While at the AICPA, Ray also was the senior technical advisor to the AICPA Auditing Standards Board and technical advisor to the AICPA representative on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). The IAASB reports to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), which works to improve the uniformity of auditing practices and related services throughout the world by issuing pronouncements on a variety of audit and assurance functions and by promoting their acceptance worldwide.

A CPA in New York and Texas, Ray holds a degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.