The Securities and Exchange Commission on December 12 announced the appointment of five new members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The new chairman of the Board will be William D. Duhnke III, currently the staff director and general counsel to the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. He will replace James Doty, who has been chair since 2011. The four other members will be J. Robert Brown, currently a professor at the University of Denver; Kathleen M. Hamm, currently global leader of securities and fintech services and senior strategic advisor on cyber solutions at Promontory Financial Group; James G. Kaiser, a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Duane M. DesParte, senior vice president and corporate controller of Exelon Corporation.

These appointments represent a complete changeover in the membership of the Board. The new appointees will be responsible for, among other things, overseeing implementation of the PCAOB’s new audit report standard. It will be interesting to see what changes in the Board’s priorities may result from this wholesale change.