Moss Adams CEO to Head Blue-Ribbon Panel on Private Company Financial Reporting

Rick Anderson, CEO of Moss Adams LLP, on Monday was named chairman of the blue-ribbon panel established to provide recommendations on the future of accounting standards for private companies.

In December, the AICPA and the Financial Accounting Foundation, FASB’s parent organization, announced the launch of the panel, and said that recommendations were likely to come this year.

Members are expected to be determined in upcoming weeks and further details on the composition of the panel will be announced shortly. They will represent a cross section of financial reporting constituencies, including lenders, investors and owners as well as preparers, auditors and regulators.

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy is also a sponsor of the panel.

Anderson currently serves on the FAF Board of Trustees. He was a member of the AICPA governing Council for three years and is the immediate past chair of the AICPA Major Firms Group. He joined Moss Adams in 1973, spending his career in the firm’s Seattle and Yakima, Wash., offices providing audit and consulting services to manufacturing, agricultural and food processing entities. He was appointed director of accounting and auditing in 1984 and director of operations in 1993; he became president/COO in 1999 and chairman and CEO in 2004.

“Rick is an outstanding selection to lead this panel. He has experience in all facets of private company accounting, and as CEO of his firm he is in direct contact with a wide and diverse constituency of private companies,” AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon said. “As a member of the FAF Board of Trustees, he is keenly aware of the challenges inherent in setting accounting standards. We look forward to working with him on this vitally important project.”

Over the past several decades other groups have wrestled with questions about accounting standards for U.S. private companies, but much of that work has focused on technical issues. Melancon has said this panel—with support from bodies representing standard setters, the CPA profession and state regulators—is unique and holds greater potential for significant movement than any previous effort.

This fall, the AICPA’s governing Council overwhelmingly supported exploring different accounting standards for private companies. The AICPA board and the FAF Board of Trustees approved resolutions to form the panel in November. 

While no deadline has been set for the panel’s work, Melancon said recommendations are likely to come this year, and it will not be a multiyear project.