Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman to Speak at Colorado State University April 8

The chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board will speak at Colorado State University as part of the College of Business’ Center for Quality Financial Reporting distinguished speaker series on April 8.

Robert H. Herz will address the challenges facing accounting standard setting and financial reporting. Currently, the FASB is working on such challenging projects as the accounting for stock options and pensions.

Herz will speak to students, faculty and staff at Colorado State University at 10 a.m. at the Cherokee Park Room in the Lory Student Center on campus. The event is free and open to public and is sponsored by Hein and Associates and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Bob has taken a leading role in improving the quality of financial reporting," said Lynn Turner, director of the Center for Quality Financial Reporting at Colorado State’s College of Business. "Bob’s leadership, dedication to the profession and tremendous insight are critical to the changes and challenges facing the accounting profession today. It will be most interesting to hear his opinions, recommendations and evaluations of financial reporting and the events of the past year."

Prior to joining the FASB in July 2002, Herz was PricewaterhouseCoopers North America theater leader of professional, technical, risk and quality and a member of the firm’s U.S. and global boards. He also served as a member of the International Accounting Standards Board. Herz is both a certified public accountant and a chartered accountant.

Herz joined Pricewaterhouse in 1974 after graduating from the University of Manchester in England with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later joined Coopers & Lybrand, becoming its senior technical partner in 1996 and assuming a similar position with the merged firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998.

During his distinguished career, Herz has authored numerous publications on a variety of accounting, auditing and business subjects, including the recent book, "The Value Reporting Revolution: Moving Beyond the Earnings Game," which he co-authored.

Herz’s has chaired the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant Securities and Exchange Commission Regulations Committee and the Transnational Auditors Committee of the International Federation of Accountants. He has served as a member of the Emerging Issues Task Force, the FASB Financial Instruments Task Force, the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee and the SEC Practice Section Executive Committee of the AICPA.

Larger groups interested in attending the event are asked to R.S.V.P. for the event by contacting Sarah Behunek at (970) 491-1184 or sarah.behunek@business.colostate.edu.