George Botic named acting PCAOB chair

The SEC has named George Botic, a longtime PCAOB employee, as acting chair of the PCAOB. He’ll replace Erica Y. Williams, who was asked to step down by SEC head Paul Atkins.

More changes to the PCAOB might be coming. The previous two SEC heads chose to replace not only the chairs but the entire boards of the PCAOB during their tenures.

But in the meantime, who is this Botic guy?

Botic, a CPA, has been with the PCAOB since 2003 and joined the board in October 2023. Most recently, he worked as the director of the PCAOB’s Division of Registration and Inspections, where he supervised both US and global audit firms, and audits of broker-dealers.

Botic’s recent speeches may give a sense of his priorities. In some of his talks, he tends to stress the importance of auditor independence and professional skepticism. He also expresses the concern that technology, especially AI, might reduce “necessary friction” from audits and that auditors might be tempted to uncritically accept the outputs that AI provides them.

“[T]here will always be a need for skilled human auditors exercising due professional care and skepticism,” he said during a talk for the accountants and auditors of the Association of American Railroads. “If auditing turns into an exercise of blind acceptance of AI outputs (automation bias takes hold), today’s independent financial statement auditors risk making the same mistakes as the auditors of Penn Central, Enron, and WorldCom.”