SEC Names McDonough Head of Accounting Board

April 15, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - William McDonough, the president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has been tapped to head up the new US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

McDonough’s appointment names a successor to acting board Chairman Charles Niemeier, who stepped in after the independent board’s first chairman, former FBI Director William Webster, resigned in November amid controversy over his service on the board of an Internet investment company with accounting problems (See Webster Steps Down From Accounting Board ). The handling of Webster’s selection by then-SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt was a factor in Pitt’s pressured resignation the same month, according to an Associated Press report.

McDonough joined the New York Fed in 1992 as an executive vice president and head of its markets group. He was named president in 1993, replacing Gerald Corrigan and had previously announced his intentions to retire from the Fed on July 21.

Prior to that, McDonough spent 22 years in banking at First Chicago Corp and First National Bank of Chicago, retiring in 1989. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Holy Cross College and a master’s degree in economics from Georgetown University.

The SEC announced last month that it had begun to accept nominations for a new permanent accounting oversight chairman, who will be paid $556,000 a year.

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