The Council of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has named Graham Ward, currently a senior partner within the Global Energy and Utilities Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers, as its new president for a two-year term concluding November 2006.
Ward will lead IFAC, which represents 157 accountancy bodies worldwide and their 2.5 million accountants, at a time when the work of both professional accountants in business and professional accountants in practice is increasingly recognized as being critical to business prosperity and capital market development and stability.
“While continuing to encourage high quality work by professional accountants in practice, we will also focus on expanding support for professional accountants in business,” said Ward. “They play a pivotal role in ensuring the fiscal soundness and accountability of diverse enterprises and we cannot underestimate their value in the international financial framework.”
He further explained: “IFAC will work in the public interest with our member bodies, international regulators and standard setters to strengthen further our transparency and accountability, to ensure that sound financial structures are in place and to promote convergence to international standards. We will also encourage strong governance and corporate codes of ethics so that management embraces its public interest responsibilities. These priorities are key to obtaining market confidence in financial information and ensuring the efficient allocation of resources, especially capital.”
Ward has been a member of IFAC's Board since 2000. During that time he was instrumental in the creation of the Task Force on Rebuilding Public Confidence in Financial Reporting and in developing its final report issued in August 2003. He also contributed to the development of IFAC's reform proposals, designed to strengthen IFAC standard setting and was a member of IFAC's Strategy Review Group, Regulatory Liaison Group and Quality Control Group.
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