Mark Weinberger Will Succeed Jim Turley as Ernst & Young Chairman and CEO

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Ernst & Young has internally announced that Mark Weinberger will be the next Chairman and CEO of the firm. Mark is a tax guy, currently the Global Vice Chair of Tax but has a lot of experience inside the federal government serving as an Assistant Secretary to the Treasury of Tax Policy under President George W. Bush, a member of the U.S. Social Security Board appointed by President Clinton and also Chief of Staff and Counsel to 1994 Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Mark got his BA at Emory, his MBA and JD from Case Western and his LLM from Georgetown. But enough about all that. Here's the announcement from E&Y:

Announcing our next Chairman and CEO
 
We have now completed our process to select a new leader for EY and we are very pleased to announce that Mark Weinberger will be Ernst & Young’s next Chairman and CEO. Mark will succeed Jim Turley when he retires in June 2013. The Global Executive (GE) and the Global Advisory Council (GAC), our highest management and governance bodies, unanimously support Mark’s selection.
 
During the past two months, the GE, with support from the GAC, has been through a robust succession process following the guidelines outlined in our regulations. This process included interviews with Area Executives, Advisory Councils and with other partners. The presiding partners of our Advisory Councils have also assisted and all those involved have reported that there has been strong engagement from the broad partner group. From this process, a number of extremely strong candidates emerged who were highly regarded throughout the organization. Mark received broad based support across geographies, service lines and sectors.
 
Mark first joined EY in our Washington, DC office in 1987 and has held many senior leadership roles. Mark has a track record of leadership both inside and outside of Ernst & Young. He currently sits on the Global Executive and runs the Global Tax practice, having previously sat on the Americas Executive and run the Americas Tax practice. Mark also serves on the Global Practice Group, Global Markets and Global Public Policy Committees. Mark has had senior roles on account teams, interacting with boards and senior management of many of our organization's largest clients, including BP, General Electric, Microsoft, Lenovo, Goldman Sachs, AES and Unilever. Mark has had very senior roles in government, including serving as Assistant Secretary to the U.S.Treasury (Tax Policy) under President George W. Bush and he was appointed to the U.S. Social Security Board by President Clinton. Mark also set up a law firm which grew to be one of the top U.S. legislative and regulatory advisory firms.
 
Mark is recognized as a leading authority on tax and regulatory policy and speaks regularly at major client events and accounting and profession conferences. He has a strong academic background in economics, finance and law. He sits on the Board of Directors for The Tax Council and The American Council for Capital Formation in Washington, DC, and has served on several U.S. Policy Advisory Committees.
 
Mark, 50, lives in Potomac, Maryland with his wife and four children.
 
"I believe that the GE and the GAC have made an excellent choice," says Jim. "Mark will be an outstanding leader for Ernst & Young over the years to come and will take our organization to even greater levels of success."
 
Mark and Jim will work closely together as Mark transitions into the role over the next 17 months. Mark will use the title Chairman and CEO – elect
 So E&Y has found their man but the real important question here is how we best amend the lyrics for In a JIT. Or maybe we just hope that another, better song and video come along. 

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(UPDATE 2) PCAOB Gives Ernst & Young Manager the Charlie Rangel Treatment

~ Update includes statement from Ernst & Young.

~Update 2 includes statement from Claudius Modesti, PCAOB Director of Enforcement and Investigations

Today in obscure accounting oversight board enforcement actions, an Ernst & Young Manager in the Boston office was censured by the PCAOB for repeated violations oy to Cooperate with Inspectors, and Auditing Standard No. 3 (“AS3”), Audit Documentation.


The violations occurred when 27 year-old Jacqueline Higgins “(1) added documents to the working papers without indicating the dates that documents were added to the working papers, the names of the persons preparing the additional documentation, and the reason for adding the documentation months after the documentation completion date; and (2) removed a document from the working
papers after the documentation completion date.”

The timeline goes like this: E&Y was given notice by the PCAOB that an inspection of the unknown company’s audit was being performed on March 30, 2010 and the partner, senior manager and manager on the engagement were given notice on March 31, 2010. The inspection fieldwork was set to begin on April 19, 2010.

On April 5th, the three Ernsters began preparing for the inspection and that’s when problems started cropping up which led to more trouble. The order has the details:

First, Respondent reported to the Engagement Partner and the Senior Manager that a “Review Procedures Memorandum” was missing from the external working papers. The Engagement Partner and the Senior Manager directed Respondent to create and print out the missing document, and to backdate the document to November 30, 2009. The Engagement Partner and the Senior Manager directed Respondent to backdate her sign-off on this working paper to November 30, 2009, and to add this document to the external working papers.

17. Second, Respondent reported to the Engagement Partner that the tie-out of the financial statements contained in the external working papers was performed upon a pre-final set of financial statements. The Engagement Partner directed Respondent to remove this document from the external working papers, and to replace it with a newly created document which tied-out the final financial statements, and which the Engagement Partner directed Respondent to backdate to November 2009.

18. Third, Respondent reported to the Engagement Partner that the Average Forward Foreign Currency Contracts Calculation (“A3a Working Paper”) was missing from the external working papers. The Engagement Partner directed Respondent to gather the missing document, backdate it to November 2009, and add it to the external working papers.

19. Finally, Respondent reported to the Senior Manager that three checklists were missing from the external working papers. The Senior Manager directed Respondent to assemble the missing checklists as a single document (“HH6.8 Working Paper”) and to backdate her sign-off on this working paper to November 2009. The Senior Manager directed Respondent to add the document to the external working papers. The Senior Manager and Respondent reported to the Engagement Partner the facts and circumstances related to the creation of the HH6.8 Working Paper, and the Engagement Partner took no steps to cause the document to be properly dated, or to have it removed from the external working papers.

So those are the wonky details. Where this particular story is most interesting (in our opinion) is that Ms Higgins was, prior to this little mishap, on the fast track. According to the order, she graduated in May of 2005 and started with E&Y in September. She was promoted to senior associate in October of 2007 and then promoted to manager in October of 2009. Now, perhaps she was an audit-savant or perhaps not but in just over four years, she was a manager, which is a much quicker pace than usual.

Granted, she was still under the supervision of the senior manager and partner on the engagement but a young manager nevertheless. Now, you might be asking yourself, “what about the senior manager and partner? Are they getting their wrists slapped?” Conventional wisdom tell us, “absofuckinglutely” but the PCAOB isn’t saying. We were told by a spokesperson that the Board cannot comment on any other action related to this case.

As far as what a censure by the PCAOB actually entails, we were told that “It is an official reprimand from the PCAOB.” Some might call it a wrist slap but we’re damn sure you don’t want that in your file when you’re 27 years old. The action also states that Ms. Higgins was removed from the engagement in July 2010 and “at that time Higgins ceased participating in issuer audit engagements.”

Messages with E&Y spokesperson Charles Perkins and A message left with an attorney for Ms. Higgins were not immediately returned.

Ernst & Young has issued the following statement:

Our firm policy clearly prohibits persons from supplementing audit workpapers in circumstances like those described in the disciplinary order. When we determined that firm policy had been violated, we put the three individuals involved on administrative leave and subsequently separated the partner and senior manager. We have advised the PCAOB of these facts and have cooperated fully with the PCAOB throughout its investigation of this matter.

Based on the above, you might conclude that more disciplinary action will be coming from the PCAOB but like we said, they’re not talking.

UPDATE 2 – circa 3:30 pm: Claudius Modesti, PCAOB Director of Enforcement and Investigations, explained the seemingly light punishment in an email to Going Concern:

As to the censure, under the facts and circumstances, the censure is appropriate given Higgins’ relatively junior position on the audit team and her overall role in the conduct. We also considered the fact that she settled the matter without requiring the Board to commence litigation, which would have been nonpublic as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

It was then explained to us that the PCAOB has never explained a disciplinary action in this way: “We also considered the fact that she settled the matter without requiring the Board to commence litigation, which would have been nonpublic as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

If that’s not quite clear, consider this: It is significant because, had Ms Higgins acted in the alternative (i.e. not settled), litigation would have been necessary and no one outside of the PCAOB, Higgins, her lawyers and E&Y would have known about the proceedings. Granted, it’s fairly common for lighter disciplinary action to result from a settlement but it also makes sense from a PR perspective (not to mention, transparency and investor protection) if the PCAOB can actually announce that they are taking action against people who break the rules. Part of the challenge the Board has faced is convincing anyone that they have teeth.

It will be interesting now to see if the senior manager and partner follow the same track as Ms. Higgins and how the PCAOB will respond to their cooperation (or lack thereof).

Jacqueline a Higgins CPA[1]

ESPN’s Website Deemed Not Crucial for Ernst & Young’s Non-Monetary NCAA Bracket Competition

Perhaps circumstances have changed but as of yesterday, access to the most popular and comprehensive coverage on the web will not be allowed.


Which is unfortunate since some offices appear to be supportive of some bracketing.

Are you ready for March Madness?

As part of _______________ into spring campaign, it’s time to join the festivities during the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament. The “Madness” begins today with a non-monetary NCAA Tournament bracket competition. Everyone in the ___________ office can submit an online Tournament bracket. At the end of the Tournament, the person from each service line who picks the most winning teams will receive _____________________ (and bragging rights!).

You must complete your Tournament bracket before Thursday, March 17 __________________. Expand the section below for instructions on how to submit a bracket under your service line. During the Tournament, which concludes with the championship game on April 4, you can visit your group’s page and see how your bracket is performing compared with your service line colleagues’ brackets. If you have any questions, please contact ____________________________

Not exactly sure how you guys feel about a non-monetary competition but as far as strategy goes, since we’ve already given you access to the best strategy you can find. Of course some people are enjoying this immensely.