PCAOB Board Member Kathleen Hamm to Complete Term

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Kathleen M. Hamm will leave the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) after completing her term as a Board member. Ms. Hamm’s term began in January 2018 and expires later this month.

“I would like to thank Kathleen Hamm for her dedicated service as a member of the Board. She brought increased focus at the PCAOB to emerging technology, cybersecurity, and the important role that auditor quality control systems play in ensuring consistent delivery of high quality audits,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.

SEC Chief Accountant Sagar Teotia added, “I would also like to thank Kathleen Hamm for her dedicated service and her contributions to enhancing audit quality.”

During her board service, Ms. Hamm’s efforts centered on protecting investors by applying her expertise and experience in technology and compliance to upgrade and modernize the PCAOB’s approach to cybersecurity and emerging technologies, both at the Board and among the audit firms it oversees. Her work spanned across all PCAOB programs – registration, inspections, standard setting, and enforcement.

“It has been my honor to serve investors and the American public at the PCAOB during this time of technological change and innovation, which has the potential to fundamentally improve the audit as well as the financial reporting process itself,” said Ms. Hamm.

Ms. Hamm joined the PCAOB from Promontory Financial Group, where she was the global leader of securities and fintech services. She was also Promontory’s senior strategic adviser to the chief executive officer on cyber solutions, having previously led the firm’s securities practice. Prior to that she was counselor to the deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department from 2014 to early 2017, advising on cybersecurity and related governance, regulatory, compliance, and risk management issues facing the financial services sector. Earlier in her career, Ms. Hamm served nearly a decade at the SEC in the Division of Enforcement, was a securities attorney in private practice, and a regulatory, compliance, risk management, and control professional for national securities exchanges.