A few words from our CEO

I recently completed an enlightening and highly successful week in Washington DC during which I conducted multiple meetings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), World Bank and with legislators on Capitol Hill. In addition I was able to participate in the conference celebrating the 125th anniversary of the AICPA, an organisation that has focused on enhancing business reporting for more than a decade. At that conference I was delighted to be a panelist in a plenary session on the future of reporting, alongside Leslie Seidman (Chairman of Financial Accounting Standards Board),  Ian MackIntosh (Deputy Chairman of International Accounting Standards Board), and Arnold Schilder (Chairman of International Accounting Audits Standards Board).  <IR> is the future of corporate reporting and the “big guys” are taking notice.

Speaking of traveling, we really are global – it is likely that shortly the IIRC will have members of its Secretariat based in Amsterdam, London, Madrid, New York, Mumbai, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo. This reflects the global nature of our impact and influence.

The momentum of <IR> across the world is gathering pace at a remarkable rate. What we need now is “something tangible” – a point made by our Council members and many others. As we move forward during the upcoming months and into 2013, we will be releasing continuing updates of developments in this area.

One of the recurring themes made by our stakeholders is that we need to better illustrate how we complement rather than compete with the large number of existing initiatives. We are working with collaborating organisations to create a solution to the jigsaw: the pieces do fit together; it is only a matter of communicating more effectively.