Accountants' power within these committees has also increased, with 23 percent of all committee chairpersons listed as an accountant, up from less than 10 percent in 2002, said Maureen Loftus, managing director of Huron Consulting Group.

However, the news is still mixed for accountants, Loftus said, as they are three times less likely than finance professionals to sit on an audit committee at all.

The Audit Committee Research report analyzed 670 audit committee members at 164 public companies from 2002 to 2006 using information contained in the companies' annual proxy statements and 10-K disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Among its findings:

• The number of audit committees with at least one accountant increased from 21 percent in 2002 to 40 percent in 2006.
• Only 22 percent of the designated financial experts had biographies indicating they had accounting backgrounds in 2006, a minimal decline from last year.
• Audit committee members who are finance professionals exceeded accountants by less than 3 to 1 in 2006 (down from 5 to 1 in 2002).
• Although the number of audit committee members considered accountants or finance professionals increased from 34 percent in 2002 to 47 percent in 2006, audit committee members in the "other" category still represented more than half of all audit committee members.
• Audit committee chairpersons, whose biographies indicated they had accounting backgrounds increased from less than 10 percent in 2002 to 23 percent in 2006, while the number of audit committee chairpersons considered "finance professionals" remained flat from 2002 to 2006 at approximately 40 percent.

"Accounting professionals are clearly in high demand by the business world," said Joseph J. Floyd, vice president and practice leader for the Financial Consulting practice, Huron Consulting Group. "More than ever, businesses are making sure that accountants are involved with or leading audit committees."

The report is available at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.

In the report, the term "accountant" was categorized by title and experience, which included certified public accountants (CPA), controllers/comptrollers, accounting professors, and those who served on accounting standards or other similar oversight boards. The "other" category was used to describe an audit committee member who was not an accountant by training or experience and was not a finance professional such as a chief financial officer, treasurer, or financial professor.