Ken Spencer, IASC recruitment committee chairman held 13 interviews this week in Tokyo for applicants from the Asia Pacific region. Two more rounds of interviews for 26 applicants will be held in a fortnight in London and New York.

The current board of 20 international delegations voted through radical structural changes in March, which involve creating a new 14-member full-time technical board. At the moment, board members are volunteers. Spencer, a current board member from the Australian delegation, will short list candidates in November. A Board of Trustees responsible for securing funding and staff for the new IASC will announce appointments in the beginning of December.

Favorites include Jim Lisenring, U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board director of international activities, and Mary Keegan, PricewaterhouseCoopers head of global reporting. Members of the current board tipped for succession are: Tatsumi Yamada, Japanese delegation, PwC Japan; Gilbert Gélard, French delegation, KPMG Paris; Harry Schmid, Swiss delegation, retired senior vice president of Nestle; and Pat Walters, users delegation, U.S. Association for Investment Management and Research.

David Tweedie has already been named as chairman of the new technical board. Tweedie, who sat in on interviews this week, said, "There are so many good people we’re spoiled for choice." He suggests that some interviewees may be put forward as candidates for the Standards Advisory Council, a second non-voting board that will check the technical board’s decisions.

Seven board members will meet with seven of the world’s key national standard setters yet to be named by the Trustees. "Liaison members don’t have to come from the liaison country. For example, it is possible that the liaison member for the UK could come from the Continent," said Tweedie.

He added, "So far people have concentrated solely on the issue of geographical representation, but the Trustees’ selection criteria will result in more diversity than people are expecting." The new board will be comprised of at least three auditors, three preparers, three users, and at least one academic.

Full-time board members will receive an annual salary of £325,000. Two members of the board will be part-time on £162,500 annual salaries. Tweedie said the salaries are low compared to what candidates could earn elsewhere, "so these people must be really committed to the goals of the new IASC, but it also means it will be difficult to get users."

The new IASC was scheduled to be operational on Jan. 1, 2001, but restructuring will not be complete until April. Spencer played down the delay, saying that the restructuring time frame set out in the IASC’s new constitution underestimates the amount of time needed to recruit staff internationally. "Once you get on with the process of interviewing you realize the world’s a pretty big place and that it has different time zones," said Spencer.

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