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PCAOB's Erica Williams Resigns, to Leave Post Jul. 22

PCAOB Chair Erica Williams will be stepping down after SEC Chair Paul Atkins asked for her resignation, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Based on an email Williams sent to PCAOB staffers, her last day is going to be Jul. 22.

“Today I accepted Erica Williams’ offer to resign as chair and a board member of the PCAOB and thanked her for her service,” Atkins stated. “We look forward to advancing our oversight responsibilities of the PCAOB as it continues its important work.”

PCAOB leadership was overhauled by the past two presidential administrations, and the Board has been expecting another revamp in President Donald Trump’s current term, or its eventual shutdown. 

In May, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a provision to shut the agency down to collapse its function into the SEC as part of a the the One Big Beautiful Bill. But, it was spared earlier in July as the Senate passed a bill that no longer included the provision. 

Williams, an ex-Kirkland & Ellis litigation partner, began as PCAOB chair in January 2022 and was reappointed in June 2024.

The PCAOB under Williams led Biden administration efforts to establish several auditing standards that auditors were against, The Journal reported.  A proposed rule on fraud detection was quite contentious, for example. Auditors noted it would need skills that go beyond their professional abilities while quite a few investors stated it would assist in offering transparency. The PCAOB, just after Trump’s election, eliminated last year's plans to vote for its adoption, leading to its precarious fate, the Journal stated. 

“I know you have questions about what is next for PCAOB leadership. Unfortunately, I do not have the answers you deserve,” Williams stated in a staff email. 

“The PCAOB plays an essential role in protecting the investments and retirement savings of workers and families across the country while helping to ensure our capital markets remain the envy of the world,” she noted. “With high economic uncertainty increasing the risk of fraud, the PCAOB’s mission is as important as ever.”

The SEC is in charge of appointing the PCAOB’s board members, which covers the chair, and has the authority to fire them at will. Atkins was a frequent critic of the PCAOB when he was a Republican SEC commissioner in the 2000s.

Under former Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC in 2021 dismissed PCAOB Chair William Duhnke from the first Trump administration and replaced most of the five-member board. An SEC-sponsored report said that there was a culture of fear under Duhnke's leadership. Four years previously in Trump’s first term, the SEC,  which was then headed by Jay Clayton, also replaced the entire board, the Journal reported.