Center For Audit Quality - CAQ Background

CAQ Background

The CAQ is an autonomous public policy organization that was launched in 2007 and counts more than 600 U.S. public company auditing firms as members. Based in Washington, D.C., the CAQ is affiliated with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA). The CAQ works to make public company audits even more reliable and relevant for investors in a time of growing financial complexity and market globalization. It also has undertaken research, offered recommendations to enhance investor confidence and the vitality of the capital markets, issued technical support for public company auditing professionals, and helped facilitate the public discussion about modernizing business reporting.

The CAQ's activities include: • Bringing together stakeholders to discuss the future of the capital markets and audit quality; • Conducting research on the perceptions of market participants to recommend enhancements to the auditing process that advance investor confidence and the vitality of capital markets; • Assisting its more than 600 member public company audit firms in their pursuit of audit quality by providing technical alerts, white papers and webcasts on key issues and topics; and • Acting as the public company auditing profession’s liaison with policymakers.

The CAQ receives strategic guidance from a 12-person Governing Board composed of CEOs of public company auditing firms and the AICPA and includes three members independent from the public company accounting profession.

The CAQ’s Executive Director is Cindy Fornelli. In 2011, Fornelli was honored for the third time by Directorship magazine as one of the 100 most influential people on corporate governance and in the boardroom, and Accounting Today named her one of the 100 most influential people in accounting for the fifth consecutive year. Fornelli currently serves as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council and the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society's Board of Trustees, Class of 2014. She previously served on the National Association of Corporate Directors’ (NACD) 2010 Blue Ribbon Commission on the Audit Committee and the NACD 2009 Blue Ribbon Commission on Risk Governance. Prior to becoming the Center’s Executive Director, Fornelli was the Regulatory and Conflicts Management Executive at Bank of America. Before joining Bank of America, Fornelli was Deputy Director of the Division of Investment Management of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.