Board Names Thomas Ray As Deputy Chief Auditor

Washington, D.C., May 8, 2003

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced that Thomas Ray will join the Board’s staff as Deputy Chief Auditor.

Mr. Ray, 43, is a partner in KPMG LLP in the Department of Professional Practice—Assurance in New York City. As a member of the Assurance Group, he provides advice on the application of professional standards and firm policy to the firm’s personnel, audit methodology and professional development groups and assurance product development teams.

As Deputy Chief Auditor, Mr. Ray will work closely with Chief Auditor Douglas R. Carmichael. The chief auditor is the primary advisor to the Board on policy and technical issues related to auditing of public companies. The chief auditor and his staff will report to the Board on significant issues related to the accounting profession and work with other relevant organizations, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

“Tom Ray’s qualifications combine an extensive technical background in auditing standards and practice with a highly developed concern with protecting investors,” Dr. Carmichael said. “I look forward to working with him.”

Mr. Ray has been the chairman of the International Auditing Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA, which closely monitors the work of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). He has been a member of the AICPA Internal Control Reporting Task Force and a member of the IAASB Quality Control Task Force, which is developing an international standard for systems of quality control over firms’ auditing and assurance services practices.

Prior to joining KPMG in June 2000, Mr. Ray was Director—Audit and Attest Standards at the AICPA, where he was responsible for the administration of the AICPA auditing and attestation standards-setting activities and was the senior technical advisor to the AICPA Auditing Standards Board. He also served as technical advisor to the AICPA representative on the IAASB.

Mr. Ray joined the AICPA in 1995 after 13 years with Grant Thornton LLP as an audit professional. He began his career in the Dallas office of the firm in January 1983.

Mr. Ray holds a degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a CPA in New York and Texas.