TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Robert H. Herz, chairman of the powerful Financial Accounting Standards Board, will meet with local business leaders and address students, faculty and staff of the Culverhouse College of Commerce on Friday, Jan. 23, as part of the College’s Lowder Lecture Series, which brings prominent business leaders from around the country to The University of Alabama to lecture and meet with students, professors and local leaders.

Herz was appointed chairman of FASB in 2002. Previously, he was a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services firm.

Robert Ingram, director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy, said Herz’s visit will increase the college’s visibility to other schools around the country.

“His visit adds credence to our program because he is taking the time to talk with students, faculty and business leaders,” Ingram said.

The mission of the Financial Accounting Standards Board is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.

Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports. They are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Such standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because investors, creditors, auditors and others rely on credible, transparent and comparable financial information.

Prior to joining the FASB, Herz was PricewaterhouseCoopers North America Theater Leader of Professional, Technical, Risk & Quality and a member of the firm’s global and U.S. Boards.

Herz also served as a part-time member of the International Accounting Standards Board. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Accountant.

“In the accounting arena, he has as much influence on accounting policy as anybody,” Ingram said.

Herz joined PriceWaterhouse in 1974 after graduating from the University of Manchester in England with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later joined Coopers & Lybrand becoming its senior technical partner in 1996 and assumed a similar position with the merged firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998.

During his career, Herz has authored numerous publications on a variety of accounting, auditing and business subjects. Included among those contributions is the recent book, “The Value Reporting Revolution: Moving Beyond the Earnings Game,” which he co-authored.

“He is one of the most innovative and forward thinkers on financial reporting,” said Dr. Mary Stone, Hugh Culverhouse Chair of Accounting at UA and a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council.

Among Herz’s other activities, he chaired the AICPA SEC Regulations Committee and the Transnational Auditors Committee of the International Federation of Accountants and served as a member of the Emerging Issues Task Force, the FASB Financial Instruments Task Force, the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee and the SEC Practice Section Executive Committee of the AICPA.

The undergraduate accounting program at the Culverhouse School of Accountancy is ranked number 25 nationally in the latest Public Accounting Report rankings.