Saturday Plenary Session

Session Submission Type: Plenary Session

Abstract

Francine McKenna, writer and author of Re: The Auditors

Unprecedented changes in the accounting profession, and professional services in general, mean the current approach to safeguarding shareholder interests, as well as the other stakeholders of the modern publicly traded global enterprise, is no longer efficient nor effective.

Francine McKenna (@retheauditors on Twitter) is a freelance writer and C.P.A. with credits in the Financial Times, Forbes.com, American Banker, Accountancy Age, Accountancy Magazine, The Columbia Journalism Review, Boston Review, the FEI Blog, and various financial,media, and technology blogs. She has a column at Forbes.com under the heading "Accounting Watchdog" and at American Banker as "Accountable". McKenna also had a weekly column at GoingConcern.com from July 2009 to July 2010.

re: The Auditors is her specialized news site about the business of the Big 4 audit firms. Stories explore the role, responsibility and regulation of the audit/accounting industry in the global capital markets in an independent, objective, and usually critical way.

Ms. McKenna was a finalist for the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Financial and Business Journalism in the online commentary and blogging category.

Ms. McKenna has more than twenty-five years of experience in a range of industries in the consulting and professional services environment. McKenna directed the Y2K PMO for JP Morgan in Latin America and was the first female Managing Director for BearingPoint in Latin America, responsible for the Industrial, Automotive and Transportation practice. She was a RVP for Jefferson Wells/Manpower and a Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, auditing PwC the firm itself. She held various positions in accounting and financial management prior to her career in professional services and began her career as an internal auditor at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust in Chicago. She passed the C.P.A. exam in Illinois in 1986 and is registered but not licensed.

Track

• Auditing Section Midyear Conference and Doctoral Consortium

Individual Presentations

• A Presentation by Francine McKenna - Francine McKenna, Writer, author of Re: The Auditors