Chairman Logothetis Statement on the PCAOB’s Draft Strategic Goals and Objectives for Public Comment

Remarks as prepared for delivery 

Good morning. Today marks an important step in strengthening the PCAOB’s ability to meet the needs of investors and our capital markets in the years ahead.  

Before I proceed, please know that my remarks reflect my individual views as the PCAOB’s Chairman and do not necessarily reflect the views of the full Board, my fellow Board Members, or the PCAOB’s dedicated staff.  

As we continue developing the PCAOB’s 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, we are meeting today to consider formally opening a public comment period to gather input on the goals and objectives that should guide our work. But before we discuss today’s matter, I think it is important to take a step back to understand how we got here and why this work is critical.  

The PCAOB's mission is clear and enduring: to protect investors and further the public interest by improving audit quality.  

Earlier this month, the United States celebrated its 250^th anniversary. With this incredible milestone, I believe it is an appropriate moment to reflect on the institutions that have helped build trust, accountability, and confidence in our capital markets, and on the importance of preserving and strengthening them for the future. 

Today, the stakes have never been higher. Before 1933, the United States had no federal disclosure frameworks and no national requirement for independent audits, leaving investors without consistent, reliable information.  

U.S. equity market capitalization peaked at roughly $126 billion prior to the 1929 crash, before collapsing to about $50 billion as confidence in the markets evaporated. The securities laws of 1933 and 1934 responded by establishing mandatory public disclosure together with independent audits, recognizing that transparency without assurance is insufficient. That framework supported decades of market growth.  

By the year 2000, U.S. equity markets had expanded to an estimated $18 trillion before failures such as Enron and WorldCom highlighted a structural problem: independent audit oversight did not exist. As this structural gap came into full view, investor confidence sharply eroded, and the U.S. capital market capitalization fell to roughly $11 trillion.  

As we know, Congress responded through the Sarbanes‑Oxley Act of 2002, which established the PCAOB.  

Today, with U.S. equity markets estimated at approximately $75 trillion, the integrity of financial reporting and audit quality has never mattered more. 

As the PCAOB looks forward, our responsibility is not only to perform oversight, but to do so in a way that adds value to that ecosystem. Being a value‑add regulator means carrying out our statutory mandate with purpose, clarity, and pride in our stride. Everything we do through standards, inspections, enforcement, and stakeholder engagement should contribute meaningfully to audit quality and provide practical value to our stakeholders while reflecting careful stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. 

Investor protection requires consistent and meaningful engagement, transparency, and accountability. We must remain responsive to investors and market participants, provide greater clarity around our decision-making, and foster trust through meaningful two-way communication and feedback. 

At the same time, how we do this work matters. Achieving our mission depends on attracting and developing exceptional talent, equipping staff with modern technology and data-driven tools, and promoting operational excellence across the organization. 

That is what we aim to achieve in the PCAOB’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan. As we move through the strategic planning process, we are working towards producing a final plan that will outline how we strengthen the accountability framework that supports confidence in our capital markets while ensuring the PCAOB continues to evolve and meet the opportunities and challenges of the next 25 years and beyond.  

2026-2030 Strategic Plan Draft Priorities, Goals, and Objectives

However, I believe the PCAOB functions best when informed by the perspectives of the full audit and financial reporting ecosystem—investors, audit committee members, preparers, auditors, academics, and others who rely on high quality, independent audits. Their insights will help inform our work in standard setting, inspections, enforcement, outreach, and the deployment of technology, including artificial intelligence, as we advance our investor-protection mission. Their feedback will also help us build a more modern, responsive, and durable PCAOB. 

That is why one of my top priorities when I become Chairman was to hear directly from our stakeholders.  

Earlier this year, we launched an open comment period for our draft strategic priorities—the first time the PCAOB has ever asked for stakeholder input before even beginning the strategic planning process—and the response was extraordinary: we received nearly 70 comment letters—more than twice as many as the number of comments previous Boards received the last two times that the PCAOB sought comments on their draft strategic plans—and more than 50 letters came from those who had never submitted a comment letter in the Board’s strategic planning process before. 

This input underscored a clear desire for greater transparency in how we evaluate and communicate inspection results, more timely and scalable standards that keep pace with emerging risks, and continued modernization of our oversight functions, including the responsible use of technology and AI. That engagement has already strengthened our planning process, and the proposal we consider today is largely based on that feedback.   

Transparency is a guiding principle for this Board. It does not begin and end with soliciting feedback. In this case, transparency requires showing how that input has shaped the strategic planning process and the results. This draft proposal reflects that commitment in practice. 

Alongside the strategic priorities, goals, and objectives, we will be introducing a broader feedback-mapping framework. This publication will provide a clear line of sight between stakeholder suggestions and the specific elements of the strategic priorities, goals, and objectives they influenced. It will allow stakeholders to trace their input through the development of the plan, from initial comment to final incorporation, and understand how the Board weighed and applied the feedback received.  

Finally, to ensure accountability over time, the Board will report quarterly progress against the final strategic plan. These updates will include how ongoing input continues to inform implementation, giving stakeholders a transparent view into both our decision-making and our follow-through.  

As we look ahead, we have outlined three reinforcing draft priorities that will guide the PCAOB’s strategic direction: 

1. Advance Audit Quality and Investor Protection 

2. Clarify Expectations and Our Bases for Decisions Leading to Understandable Outcomes 

3. Transform How Oversight is Delivered 

These priorities, “Advance, Clarify, and Transform” or “A-C-T”, reflect the core responsibilities of a modern regulator and the realities of today's capital markets. Together, they provide the organizing framework for our strategic goals and objectives, which our Chief Strategy Officer, Lorene Rosenberg, just outlined. 

Taken together, these priorities, goals, and objectives will ultimately form a unified approach that strengthens our investor-protection mission and guides our work across the organization.  

Receiving stakeholder feedback at this stage will help ensure that our final 2026–2030 Strategic Plan is both ambitious and practical—one that advances audit quality, enhances transparency, and positions the PCAOB to meet the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly evolving environment not only over the next five years, but well into the future.  

Closing

This work is important because the PCAOB’s mission is critical: we oversee a system that underpins trillions of dollars in capital formation and supports the economic security of millions of Americans.  

The risks facing investors today look very different from the risks that shaped the PCAOB’s design more than twenty years ago. Opening this comment period ensures that our direction is informed by those realities and by the voices of the people we are here to protect.  

We are committed to building a framework that strengthens trust, improves outcomes, and positions the PCAOB to meet the challenges ahead with clarity and purpose.  

That is why, for many reasons, I am pleased to support this request for public comment before the Board today.  

Before turning the floor to my fellow Board Members for their comments, I would like to take a moment to thank them for their engagement and collaboration. I would also like to recognize and thank all the staff from across the PCAOB’s Divisions and Offices who have contributed to the strategic planning process thus far, especially our Chief Operating Officer Randy Thornton and Chief Strategy Officer Lorene Rosenberg, and Brent Simer, Anita Doutt, and Danette Edwards from my team. 

Thank you.