Zoe-Vonna Palmrose Named SEC Deputy Chief Accountant for Professional Practice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2006-131

Washington, D.C., Aug. 2, 2006 - Dr. Zoe-Vonna Palmrose, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Professor of Auditing at the University of Southern California's Leventhal School of Accounting and Marshall School of Business, will join the Securities and Exchange Commission as its Deputy Chief Accountant for Professional Practice, the agency announced today.

"Dr. Palmrose has dedicated her entire career to the service of investors and to the quality of the financial information on which they rely," said Chairman Christopher Cox. "Her path breaking work on the deterrence of accounting fraud and the determinants of restatements, including internal controls, and her extensive knowledge of auditing, will be an enormous benefit to the SEC and the investors we serve."

"Investors are fortunate for Dr. Palmrose's expertise and her commitment to public service," incoming Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt said. "Accountants are fortunate for her enthusiastic and long standing support for the highest standards in the profession. She brings to the SEC an unparalleled background in both the great policy questions and the real-world practicalities of auditing, and I look forward to working with her."

"I look forward to working with the Commission and its outstanding staff to get better information to investors more quickly and in more useful form," Dr. Palmrose said. "I have spent my academic career on issues related to the quality of financial reporting and auditing. Ensuring that appropriate controls are in place to get reliable information to investors is vital. I can't imagine a better time to contribute to the development of accounting and auditing, or a better position from which to do so."

Dr. Palmrose will be in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8, 2006, when she will receive the prestigious Wildman Medal Award from the American Accounting Association, becoming one of only three academics ever honored twice with the award. She has also twice been named one of Business Finance Magazine's most influential persons. Her extensive research and leadership on the subject of preventing and detecting accounting fraud includes service on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Auditing Standards Board Fraud Task Force; the AICPA Antifraud Program and Controls Task Force; and the Education in Fraud and Forensic Accounting Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In addition to her work on the prevention of accounting fraud, Dr. Palmrose served as a member of the Public Oversight Board's Panel on Audit Effectiveness, established in response to an SEC call for a blue ribbon panel to examine the audit process to protect investors. In that capacity, she studied and reported on the conduct of audits of public companies with the goal of achieving more effective audits to improve financial statement reliability. Dr. Palmrose also served as a consultant to the landmark National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, popularly known as the Treadway Commission.

Dr. Palmrose is also a recognized expert in translating the complexities and jargon of accounting into plain English for general audiences. In 2005, together with co-author Mike Brown, a former NASDAQ Chairman and Microsoft CFO, she wrote the decidedly lighthearted "Thog's Guide to Quantum Economics: 50,000 Years of Accounting Basics for the Future." This irreverent, plain-English reconciliation of ancient accounting principles and modern science was illustrated by world-famous ski film producer Warren Miller.

As Deputy Chief Accountant for Professional Practice, Dr. Palmrose will oversee the Commission's work with respect to audit standards, PCAOB liaison, and independence.

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2006/2006-131.htm