The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) member Lewis H. Ferguson has been reappointed for a second term on the Board.

“I am pleased with the Commission’s reappointment of Lew Ferguson as a PCAOB board member,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  “Lew brings a wealth of institutional knowledge to his position and I look forward to the contributions he will make in his continued service as a Board Member.” 

The PCAOB provides oversight of the audits of financial statements of public companies and broker-dealers through registration, standard setting, inspection, and disciplinary programs.  As required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Commission is responsible for overseeing the PCAOB and appointing its members.

Mr. Ferguson’s new term runs until October 2019.  He was first appointed to the PCAOB in January 2011 and served as its first General Counsel from 2004 to 2007.  Before joining the PCAOB as a Board Member, Mr. Ferguson was a partner in the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he focused on securities regulation and corporate disclosure and governance.  He was a partner at the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP from 1979 to 1994 and again from 1998 to 2004, specializing in corporate transactions, securities enforcement matters, and representation of audit committees and boards of directors.  From 1994 to 1998, he was Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Director of Wright Medical Technology.

In April 2015, Mr. Ferguson began a four-year term as Chair of the Global Public Policy Committee Working Group of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR). He served as the IFIAR Chair for two years before that, following a one-year term as Vice Chair of IFIAR, an organization of 50 national audit oversight bodies that operate independently of the accounting profession. 

Mr. Ferguson received his B.A. cum laude from Yale College.  He has a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review.  Mr. Ferguson clerked for the Hon. Frank J. Murray, U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts.