New Chairman for the ASB

From 1 August, Ian Mackintosh will succeed Mary Keegan as the Chairman of the ASB. Originally from New Zealand, Ian has spent much of his career in Australia, first with Coopers and Lybrand and later as a consultant in his own practice. For most of his time as a partner of Coopers and Lybrand he was Partner-in-charge of the Canberra office where he oversaw a wide-ranging practice which included audit, tax and consulting teams.

In November 2000, Ian was appointed Chief Accountant of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, a role similar to that of the Chief Accountant at the SEC. From there, Ian moved to the World Bank to take on the role of Manager, Financial Management, South Asia. In this role, Ian has been responsible for analysing, and encouraging improvements in, the financial reporting and auditing regimes across the region.

Ian has played an active role in standard-setting since 1983 and is a veteran of groups such as the G4+1 and Commonwealth Standards Setters. Ian has been a member of the IASB's Standards Advisory Council from its inception in 2001 and is also a member of its Advisory Panel on Small and Medium-Sized Entities. Previously, Ian was a member, and later Deputy Chairman, of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, as well as chairing its Urgent Issues Group. Ian also has substantial public sector experience, having chaired both the Australian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board and the IFAC Public Sector Committee.

Ian is looking forward to meeting constituents in the UK as soon as possible and working with standardsetting colleagues in Europe.

Other Appointments

Having assumed extra management responsibilities at the BBC, John Smith has stood down as chairman of the Public Sector and Not-for-profit Committee, to be replaced by Andrew Lennard, the ASB's Technical Director.

Michael Hughes, Ric Piper and Jonathan Southern have ceased to be members of the Urgent Issues Task Force. In their place, Rona Fairhead, Geoffrey Mitchell and Andrew Vials have been appointed to the UITF.

David Finch has stepped down from CASE, to be replaced by Sara Harvey.

Seema Jamil-O'Neill has joined the staff as a Project Director, on secondment from KPMG.

Janice Lingwood has joined the staff as a Project Director, on secondment from PwC.