PCC gets new chair, three new members

Candace Wright, who serves as a director with Louisiana CPA firm Postlethwaite & Netterville, was appointed Tuesday as chair of the Private Company Council (PCC).

The board of trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) also appointed three new members and reappointed six current PCC members.

Wright has more than 30 years of experience in the accounting profession and is the service line leader for Postlethwaite & Netterville’s Assurance Services Group. She also is the firm’s quality-control director and leads the firm’s financial institutions industry group and peer review services.

She will succeed Billy Atkinson, the PCC’s inaugural chair, whose term concludes Dec. 31.

FAF established the PCC in 2012 to improve the process of setting accounting standards for private companies. The PCC is charged with reviewing and proposing possible alternatives to GAAP for private companies when such alternatives are warranted. The PCC also serves as the primary advisory body to FASB on the appropriate treatment for private companies for items on FASB’s agenda.

Under Atkinson, the PCC has sparked the development of four GAAP alternatives for private companies, tackling accounting for intangible assets in a business combination; applying variable-interest entity guidance to common control leasing arrangements; accounting for goodwill; and creating a simplified hedge accounting approach to accounting for certain interest-rate swaps.

The other new members appointed to the PCC are:

• Timothy Curt (a financial statement preparer), managing director and partner of Warburg Pincus LLC.
• David Lomax (a financial statement user), assistant vice president and underwriting officer of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.
• Harold Monk Jr. (an audit practitioner), partner of Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC.

The new members will replace current PCC members Mark Ellis (preparer), Neville Grusd (user), and Diane Rubin (practitioner), whose terms end Dec. 31. Wright, Curt, Lomax, and Monk will be eligible for reappointment to an additional term of two years following their initial term.

Wright serves as a member of FASB’s Small Business Advisory Committee (SBAC) and is a member of the AICPA Practice Monitoring of the Future Task Force. She also is a member of the Society of Louisiana CPAs’ Financial Institutions Committee. She has served on the AICPA Technical Issues Committee and on the AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center’s Executive Committee.

“Candace Wright is a dynamic leader who will bring to the PCC a deep understanding of the accounting issues that affect private companies across a broad range of industry sectors,” FAF board of trustees Chairman Jeffrey Diermeier said in a news release. “Her experience on the SBAC will lend valuable insight to the PCC as it works with the FASB to address these issues, especially those that affect smaller private companies.”

FASB member Daryl Buck will continue to serve as FASB’s liaison to the PCC.

—Ken Tysiac (ktysiac@aicpa.org) is a JofA editorial director.