Center for Audit Quality Webcast: PCAOB Insights on Internal Control: A Discussion on Auditing Standard No. 5 (CD-ROM)

Thomas Ray, CPA, is Chief Auditor and Director of Professional Standards for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in Washington, DC. His principal responsibility is to advise the PCAOB board members on the establishment and application of auditing, quality control, ethical, and independence standards applicable to audits of U.S. public companies.

Prior to joining the PCAOB staff as Deputy Chief Auditor in June 2003, Mr. Ray was a partner at KPMG LLP in the Department of Professional Practice in New York City where he provided advice to the firm's personnel on the application of professional standards and firm policy. Prior to joining KPMG in June 2000, Mr. Ray was Director—Audit and Attest Standards at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (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. Mr. Ray joined the AICPA in 1995 after 13 years with Grant Thornton LLP as an audit professional.

Mr. Ray received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a certified public accountant in New York and Texas.

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Sharon Virag, CPA, is the Director of Technical Policy Implementation for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in Washington, DC.  Her principal responsibility is to facilitate entity-wide implementation and coordination of key technical issues.  As a member of the Office of the Chairman, Ms. Virag works closely with PCAOB board members and division leadership teams, overseeing the Board's entity-wide efforts related to the implementation of Auditing Standard No. 5, as well as the implementation of other key technical policies of the Board. 

Before taking on her latest role, Ms. Virag was an Associate Chief Auditor, working with the PCAOB's Chief Auditor and his staff in advising the PCAOB board members on the establishment of auditing and related professional practice standards. In this role, Ms. Virag focused primarily on the Board's internal control-related standards and was the project leader for the development of Auditing Standard No. 5.

Prior to joining the PCAOB in January 2005, Ms. Virag was with Deloitte & Touche, LLP, specializing in audits of public companies within a wide range of industries.  She also has several years of private industry experience focused in international internal audit and risk management.  She holds a degree in accounting from California State University and is a certified public accountant in the state of Arizona.

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Trent Gazzaway, CPA is an audit partner and the partner-in-charge of corporate governance for Grant Thornton LLP.  Trent’s experience includes auditing public and private companies and assisting an array of companies in the improvement and documentation of effective systems of internal control.  He has also assisted large public companies in the development and execution of plans to restate their financial statements in the wake of internal control failures.

In addition to managing the Firm’s corporate governance practice, Trent serves as a key resource in training Grant Thornton personnel to audit internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with newly established auditing standards.  He is one of four steering committee chairmen assisting in the development of the Open Compliance and Ethics Group’s framework for integrating governance, compliance, risk management and integrity into all business processes (www.oceg.org). Trent is also a member of the advisory board of the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative (www.mgt.ncsu.edu/erm) at NC State University’s College of Management.

Most recently, Trent was appointed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) board to lead a project to develop guidance regarding the effective monitoring of internal control in accordance with COSO’s Internal Control—Integrated Framework.

Trent is a frequent speaker at seminars, has authored several nationally and internationally published articles related to Sarbanes‑Oxley and corporate governance, and publishes Grant Thornton’s award-winning quarterly CorporateGovernor newsletter.

Education
Trent has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Masters of Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Certifications/Affiliations/Awards
Trent is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Internal Auditors, the American Accounting Association and the National Association of Corporate Directors.  Trent was recognized by Treasury & Risk Management magazine in 2005 as one of the “100 most influential people in finance” and by Business Finance magazine in 2006 as one of 60 top “Influencers” in finance and accounting.

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Cindy Fornelli is the Executive Director for the Center for Audit Quality.  The Center for Audit Quality is an independent, non-profit organization founded by the public company audit profession to serve investors, public company auditors and the market.  It is affiliated with the AICPA.

The Center’s mission is to foster confidence in the audit process and aid investors and the capital markets by advancing constructive changes rooted in the core values of integrity, honesty and trust.  As the Executive Director, Fornelli is responsible for carrying out the mission and vision of the Center’s Governing Board, which represents the public company auditing firms, the AICPA and independent public members.

Prior to becoming the Center’s Executive Director, Fornelli was the Regulatory and Conflicts Management Executive at Bank of America. In that role, she was responsible for managing enterprise-wide conflicts that potentially could arise from the bank’s delivery of multiple products and services across several business divisions, particularly as these conflicts related to securities regulation. Fornelli also had responsibility for coordinating enterprise regulatory relations with securities and banking regulators.

Prior to joining Bank of America, Fornelli was Deputy Director of the Division of Investment Management of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she was responsible for implementing SEC policy, rules and regulations in the investment company and investment advisory industries.

Before joining the SEC in 1999, Fornelli spent several years in private practice, first as an associate in the Washington, DC, office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, and then as a member of the Investment Management Practice Group of Dechert.

Fornelli received a BA from Purdue University and a law degree magna cum laude from George Washington University National Law Center. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.

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