September 2000

PwCs New Global ABAS Leader Prepares for the Future

As the new head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global assurance and business advisory services (ABAS), Frank Brown plans to prepare his division for the new economy of the future.

"We all expect significant changes in the new business and the new economy,” said Brown. “I think they are already starting to happen.” “The very nature of what companies want and expect from their accounting firms has changed in the new economy,” said Brown.

Brown is responsible for leading the firm’s largest line of services: Fiscal year 1999 revenues for ABAS exceeded $6 billion, and the division employs nearly 5,000 partners and 60,000 professional employees in 150 countries.

Ensuring that the firm leads in assurance and reporting for businesses around the world is one of Brown’s top priorities as head of global ABAS. Global ABAS is responsible for the audit, accounting, and attest services for clients in every country served by PwC.

“Our profession must continue to meet its responsibilities to safeguard the integrity and independence of the financial and capital markets,” said Brown. “At the same time, our future growth will depend on our ability to meet client needs in areas such as information assessment and risk management, transaction services, and trusted third party certification that arise from the explosion of electronic commerce.”

Brown became a partner in 1989. Most recently, he was the managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ New York offices.

An active member of the NYSSCPA, Brown is also a member of the AICPA and both the New Jersey and Connecticut CPA societies.

“I think I was picked [to lead ABAS] because I have a good rapport with our folks around the world,” said Brown. His years of global experience have fostered global ties, including those with multinational clients like Sony. Nevertheless, he is open to new ideas.“I come from the standpoint that I have as much to learn as I have to teach,” said Brown, adding that he expects to be an effective leader by listening to the partners and professionals in his division.

Brown’s appointment was part of a large restructuring and business separation plan announced in February. Under the proposed restructuring, the firm’s assurance, business advisory, and tax practices would remain with PricewaterhouseCoopers while management consulting, business process outsourcing, and human resource consulting practices and certain corporate finance activities would become one or more separate businesses. Initially, the firm had hoped to separate its businesses and have them function as separate entities by early July, according to an April Financial Times report.

“Frank Brown will lead our core assurance and business advisory services in meeting the challenges presented to business and the accounting profession by economic forces like the Internet, by new factors driving corporate value, and by increased requirements for accurate and secure electronic transactions,” PricewaterhouseCoopers Chair James J. Schiro said. “ABAS will be at the forefront of the reinvention of PricewaterhouseCoopers and in the reshaping of the services we provide to clients in the new economy.”