Kara M. Stein

Kara M. Stein was appointed as a Board Member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board by the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2021 and sworn in on November 18, 2021. Her current term expires on October 24, 2026.

As part of her responsibilities, Board Member Stein is Chair of the Global Audit Quality Working Group of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR).  In that role, she works with audit regulators from some of IFIAR’s largest markets and assurance leaders from the six biggest global audit networks on opportunities for enhancing audit quality.

Prior to joining the Board, Board Member Stein served as a Distinguished Policy Fellow and Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and was Director of the AI, Data, and Capital Markets Initiative at the Center on Innovation of the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (Hastings).

From 2013 to 2019, Board Member Stein was a Commissioner of the SEC. There, she was a forceful advocate for seizing opportunities provided by technology and the digital transformation of the capital markets to better protect investors and promote capital formation.  As Commissioner, Stein also focused on identifying ways to enhance securities market structure to promote competition, efficiency, and resiliency, among other initiatives. 

Earlier in her career, Board Member Stein was Senior Policy Advisor for securities and banking matters for U.S. Senator Jack Reed and Majority Staff Director of the Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Yale College.