Chair Williams to Depart PCAOB July 22 Following Record Accomplishments

PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams announced today that she will leave the PCAOB Tuesday, July 22, ending a tenure marked by record accomplishments.

“The dedicated staff of the PCAOB are among the most talented and hardworking professionals with whom I have had the opportunity to work, and it has been my honor to serve alongside them,” said Williams. “The PCAOB plays an essential role in protecting the investments and retirement savings of workers and families across the country while helping to ensure our capital markets remain the envy of the world. With high economic uncertainty increasing the risk of fraud, the PCAOB’s mission is as important as ever. It’s critical the expert PCAOB staff continue to be empowered to carry out their work of ensuring American investors are protected.”

Williams was originally sworn in as PCAOB Chair in January of 2022. She was reappointed in June 2024 and sworn in on October 24, 2024. Under her leadership, the PCAOB developed and executed an ambitious strategic plan to modernize standards, enhance inspections, strengthen enforcement, and improve the PCAOB’s organizational effectiveness.

The PCAOB’s accomplishments under Williams’ tenure include:

• Securing complete access to inspect and investigate firms headquartered in China for the first time in history and bringing record enforcement actions against China-based firms.
• Launching a concentrated effort to improve audit quality that helped lead to significant improvements in deficiency rates across audit firms.
• Increasing transparency in inspection reports and getting those reports out nearly a year sooner so that investors, audit committees, and others have access to valuable information more quickly.
• Taking more formal actions to modernize standards and rules than any Board since the PCAOB was created, finalizing seven projects, covering 24 rules and standards.
• Delivering record-setting sanctions, sending a clear message that there will be strong consequences for anyone who puts investors at risk. 
• Partnering with staff to make the PCAOB a better place to work, leading to a 30-percentage point increase in the number of PCAOB staff who say they would recommend the PCAOB as a great place to work.
• Reimagining stakeholder outreach, reconstituting the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group and creating the first-ever standalone Office of the Investor Advocate. 
• Awarding the highest amount of merit-based scholarships to accounting students in PCAOB history.
  

More information on the accomplishments under Williams’ term can be found here. 

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About the PCAOB

The PCAOB is a nonprofit corporation established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports. The PCAOB also oversees the audits of brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws.