The CPA Journal

Robert H. Herz Named FASB Chair

On April 24, FASB announced that Robert H. Herz, a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been named chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Herz will succeed outgoing Chair Edmund L. Jenkins, who will retire on June 30 upon completion of his five-year term.

The appointment was announced by Manuel H. Johnson, cochair of Johnson Smick International and chairman of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), which appoints the members of FASB and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Herz’s five-year term will commence on July 1.

At the time he accepted the position with FASB, Herz was PricewaterhouseCoopers’s North America theater leader of professional, technical, risk, and quality, and a member of the firm’s global and U.S. boards. He also served as a part-time member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Herz is both a CPA and a Chartered Accountant.

“Bob Herz will bring outstanding expertise to the FASB, and we are delighted to announce that he will join the board as its chairman,” Johnson said. “Bob is widely recognized in the U.S. and abroad for his strong technical background and grasp of complex accounting and financial reporting issues. His experience will be a tremendous asset to the FASB as standard setting faces tougher challenges in a changing marketplace.”

A native of New York City, Herz spent part of his early life in Argentina and England. He joined Price Waterhouse in 1974 upon graduating from the University of Manchester in England with a B.A. in economics. He later joined Coopers & Lybrand, becoming its senior technical partner in 1996, and assumed a similar position after the 1998 merger.

Herz has chaired the AICPA’s SEC Regulations Committee and the Transnational Auditors Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and served as a member of the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), the FASB Financial Instruments Task Force, the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee, and the SEC Practice Section (SECPS) Executive Committee of the AICPA.

Nancy Newman-Limata, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and immediate past president of the NYSSCPA, described Herz as “brilliant.” She added, “He was a good influence at the time that Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged in 1998. He doesn’t look for the status quo and he always tries to think outside the box. I view him as a catalyst for change and as someone who is dedicated to the profession. He’s an excellent choice for the position of chair of the FASB.”