Career moves

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, announced that Bob Dias has been named vice president of product and segment management.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has named Mary Moore Hamrick as director of its newly established Office of External Relations.The public affairs and government relations offices will now be combined under the single communications department. To head those offices, the board also announced that two new deputy directors have joined the board. Colleen Brennan will head up public affairs activities, while Kent Bonham will oversee government relations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant announced the selection of three academic accounting fellows, who will serve one-year terms beginning this summer.

Sage Software is unveiling a fresh infrastructure that aims to shift its business units more closely to its customers needs, creating two new business divisions as well as a new chief technology officer position.

Four new members have been appointed to the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee.The trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, part of the Interational Accouting Standards Board, made the three-year appointments, which will be up in June 2010.

Sage Software was once a one-legged company. Well, that is more or less true in the sense that the overwhelmingly majority of its revenue came from selling product and from the services surrounding them. And however much came from services, product license revenue was still the core.

The Virginia Society of CPAs has named Stephanie R. Peters as its new president and chief executive.

Embattled mortgage financing concern Freddie Mac said Eugene McQuade, its president and chief operating officer, will exit the company September 1. McQuade, a former executive with FleetBoston Financial Corp. joined Freddie Mac in September 2004 following Fleet's acquisition by Bank of America, and was in line to succeed chairman and chief executive Richard Syron. Freddie Mac, and sibling Fannie Mae have been embroiled in mammoth accounting scandals, with both entities having to restate an $11 billion in earnings. A replacement for McQuade has not been named. However, a management succession committee has been established. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission began distributing a $357 million Fair Fund created as part of a financial reporting fraud settlement last year with Fannie Mae. Anyone who purchased Fannie Mae common stock between Jan. 14, 1999, and Dec. 22, 2004, or preferred stock between Sept. 25, 2003, and Dec. 22, 2004 is eligible. The distribution is expected to be completed by October. More information is available at www.SECFannieMaeSettlement.com.

Norwalk, Conn. -- The Financial Accounting Foundation, overseer to both the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, appointed Girard Miller and Jan I. Sylvis to five-year terms on GASB. Their terms begin July 1. Miller and Sylvis will succeed outgoing GASB board members Cynthia Green and Edward Mazur, respectively. Miller previously served as president of Janus Funds and chief operating officer of asset manager Janus Capital Group. Sylvis currently is the chief of accounts for Tennessee's Department of Finance & Administration, where she serves as state controller.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson will leave the agency to become president and chief executive of the American Red Cross next month.Everson, 52, has served as IRS commissioner since May 2003. During his time with the agency, he has publicly focused his attention on efforts to better serve taxpayers, continue the agency’s modernization of its systems and enhance its enforcement activities. In recent months, Everson has heard increased clamoring from Congress over how the agency and the Treasury Department should best work to address the nation’s growing tax gap -- estimated at $345 billion for the 2001 tax year.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that deputy chief auditor Laura J. Phillips will leave the board later this year.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has named Lawrence W. Smith, currently chairman of the standard-setter’s Emerging Issues Task Force, as a member of the board.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its six district offices will become regional offices and report directly to the commission's Washington headquarters as of April 2.

The Financial Accounting Foundation said that it will give the Securities and Exchange Commission the opportunity to propose and review candidates for open positions at either the foundation, or the board the foundation oversees, the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the appointment of David R. Williams as director of the agency’s Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits division.

In a strategy designed to help modernize the business-reporting model, board members of the American Institute of CPAs’ recently restructured Center for Audit Quality will embark on a multi-city “listening tour."The aim of the tour is for members to engage investors, regulators, academics and business leaders and, subsequently, offer a series of recommendations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant has selected four professional accounting fellows to serve two-year terms beginning this summer.

Susan Sheridan-Austin, who began her distinguished career as one of the first 25 employees of Microsoft, and who later rose to the role of general manager at Sage Accpac, passed away in February after a two-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer.She was 51.

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy announced the appointment of new chief operating and financial officers, as well as a new president of its Professional Credential Services Inc.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has hired Luc Lavoie to serve as executive director of its newly established Canadian office.