Hans Hoogervorst will become the next chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, the IASB’s oversight body, named Hoogervorst as the successor to Sir David Tweedie, who will retire as chairman of the IASB at the end of June 2011.
The trustees announced Ian Mackintosh, chair of the UK Accounting Standards Board, will become vice-chairman of the IASB.
Hoogervorst is chairman of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, the Dutch securities and market regulator. He is chairman of the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions. He and former SEC Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid co-chaired the Financial Crisis Advisory Group, an independent body created to advise accounting standard setters on their response to the global financial crisis. He will step down from all his current positions to lead the IASB.
“As a securities and market regulator, I have investor protection in my DNA,” Hoogervorst said in a press release. “I strongly believe that a global set of accounting standards, set for investors by an independent standard setter, is an essential component for the world’s financial markets. These will remain my priorities.”
He will take the helm as the IASB and FASB work to harmonize their standards through a series of convergence projects. In June, the boards agreed to modify their joint work plan to prioritize the most urgent projects to meet a June 2011 deadline. “Projects we believe are a relatively lower priority or for which further research and analysis is necessary are now targeted for completion after the original June 2011 target date,” the boards said in a progress report.
It’s unclear who Hoogervorst’s counterpart will be at FASB. Bob Herz stepped down as FASB’s chairman last month. Fellow board member Leslie Seidman has been appointed acting chairman, effective Oct. 1. The Financial Accounting Foundation Board of Trustees announced Herz’s retirement and a restructuring that will expand FASB’s board from five to seven members. FASB’s technical director, Russell Golden, has since been named a board member.
The IASB appointments mark the end of a nearly yearlong international search, according to a press release from the IFRS Foundation . Trustees sought nominations from more than 500 stakeholder organizations and considered more than 300 candidates from 28 countries before compiling a short list of 45 individuals from 20 countries. The appointments were unanimous.
Between 1998 and 2007, Hoogervorst held a number of positions in the Dutch government, including minister of finance; minister of health, welfare and sport; and state secretary for social affairs. Before that he was a member and senior policy adviser to the Dutch Parliament and the Ministry of Finance. He also spent three years as a banking officer for the National Bank of Washington in Washington, D.C.
Mackintosh has spent much of his career in Australia, first with Coopers & Lybrand and later as a consultant in his own practice. In November 2000, he was appointed chief accountant of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and following that was manager, Financial Management, South Asia at the World Bank.
Mackintosh has played an active role in standard setting since 1983. He was a member, and later deputy chairman, of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. He is also a member of the IASB’s Standards Advisory Council. He has substantial public-sector experience as former chairman of both the Australian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board and the IFAC Public Sector Committee.
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