Erica Y. Williams leaving PCAOB

There’s been a lot of commotion at a group that doesn’t normally catch the mainstream spotlight.

Erica Y. Williams announced this week that she’s stepping down as chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, effective Tuesday, July 22. She announced her departure after SEC head Paul Atkins asked that she resign, according to media reports.

“With high economic uncertainty increasing the risk of fraud, the PCAOB’s mission is as important as ever,” Williams said in a news release. “It’s critical the expert PCAOB staff continue to be empowered to carry out their work of ensuring American investors are protected.”

Williams started her tenure as chair of PCAOB, an independent watchdog that Congress created through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to oversee auditors of public companies, back in January 2022. She was reappointed last year.

Some of PCAOB’s achievements under Williams’ watch, per the news release, include the group securing “complete access” to inspect firms based in China, improved audit quality “that helped lead to significant improvements in deficiency rates across audit firms,” and levying “record-setting sanctions” that alerted companies of the consequences to “anyone who puts investors at risk.”

Republican lawmakers tried to eliminate the PCAOB. But the Senate parliamentarian came to its rescue, essentially striking down a provision in the recently passed Republican megabill that would have seen to the group’s demise.

Williams defended the PCAOB when it was still on the chopping block. “History tells us that when the economy is tight, the risk of fraud goes up. And the stakes are high,” she told the Wall Street Journal this spring.