re: The Auditors

Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: A College Student’s Assessment of Public Accounting Job Opportunities

Jordan Sakowitz is a senior at Lehigh University, majoring in Accounting and Management Information Systems. He also serves as the editor of the Brand-Yourself.com Blog. While he currently resides in Bethlehem, PA, he will be moving to New York City this summer when he will begin his career ...

@Going Concern “At Davos, Big 4 CEOs Get Their Close-Ups”

My new post is up @Going Concern. Davos is a big deal for the media and they’re hungry for content. Any content. The prepped and pre-scripted interviews are full of softball questions and carefully restrained probing. Whether giving air time to KPMG’s Flynn, Quigley from Deloitte, E&Y’s Turley or PwC’s Nally, everyone ...

The Great American Financial Sandwich: AIG, PwC, and Goldman Sachs

It may have been the first time you had ever heard of AIG. As big as it is, it wasn't really a household name outside of the financial services world. And certainly, big as it is, the average businessperson probably could not describe everything they did and why. The Wall ...

Sarbanes-Oxley Insights: An Interview With Bob Hirth of Protiviti

Protiviti is currently soliciting feedback for its new Sarbanes-Oxley Insight Survey. The results of this survey promise to provide valuable and important insight into the current state of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for all types of organizations. We should also learn more about the related costs and how to achieve a desired state ...

Update-Bring A Man of Integrity To U.S. Senate: David Hoffman for Illinois

Update: David Hoffman's chief opponent as the Democratic candidate for US Senate from Illinois , Alexi Giannoulias, now has some serious banking issues. From Politico: Here’s a story that Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias (D) didn’t want coming out less than a week before next Tuesday’s primary. The Crain’s piece reports that Giannoulias’s ...

Do You Have Something To Tell The PCAOB?

Dear Madame: Thank you for your recent submission to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). We appreciate your taking the time to contact us. This automated response confirms that the PCAOB has received your communication. The PCAOB’s mission is to oversee the auditors of public companies in order to protect the interests ...

@Going Concern “The Big 4 and Shameless Self-Promotion”

My new post is up @Going Concern. "I chafe at the cheekiness of some of the announcements. The firms’ communications teams are blithely unaware of how such shameless self-promotion looks to those who are watching closely. For example, all of the Big 4 firms were named to the Fortune 100 Best ...

Guest Post From Greg George: Thinking Of Striking Out On Your Own? Be Careful!

So many of you are no longer working for the Big 4 or next tier firms. Those of you who had a chance to stay long enough - not as common as in the past and more often not your choice these days - may be thinking about setting up ...

Roopen Roy, Deloitte India, On Audit Firm Mergers

Roopen Roy is the Managing Director, Deloitte Consulting, India. In July 2007, Roy was one of four senior executives of PricewaterhouseCoopers India who defected to Deloitte India to lead the consulting practice at that firm. From India's Economic Times: "Four senior executives from PricewaterhouseCoopers have joined rival and professional services major Deloitte Touche ...

Help The The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago Help Haiti

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Guillermo Becerra, is the CFO of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago. I asked him how I could help him, and the Red Cross, during what must be an incredibly busy time post-Haiti earthquake. He asked me to use the power of social ...