Career moves

Microsoft has ended its search for a new leader for its Microsoft Business Solutions unit, naming insider Satya Nadella to succeed senior vice president Doug Burgum as head of the division that oversees Microsoft Dynamics and small business products.Burgum will stay on during a transition period of about nine months.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that chief administrative officer Paul Schneider and public affairs director Christi Harlan will leave the board this month. Schneider joined the PCAOB in January 2003 as interim chief administrative officer, taking responsibility for a variety of start-up related activities. He was named chief administrative officer four months later. PCAOB Chairman Mark Olson said Schneider was instrumental in leading the selection of key personnel to head the board’s administrative offices, including information technology, finance, human resources and facilities management, as well as managing the budget and design aspects of the board’s benefit plans. Before joining the board, Schneider was the managing principal of Vector Recovery Group LLC, a turnaround management firm that provided restructuring and crisis management services. He has not announced his future plans. Harlan joined the board in April 2003, and said in a statement that she would be leaving to seek a new venture in public service. Harlan came to the PCAOB from the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she served as public affairs director from January 2002 until April 2003. Prior to her SEC service, Harlan was director of external affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and communications director for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Turn the clock back some 50 years, and you'll find that there were only 750 female CPAs. Fast-forward to 1972, and that total had increased to 2,000.Last year, the American Institute of CPAs had 106,000 female members, and in public accounting, the number of female CPAs with membership in the institute was roughly 41,000.

Edward W. Trott, a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, said that he would step down from that position in June 2007, after eight years on the board of the standard-setter.Trott had accepted a second five-year term in July 2004, but at that time had advised the trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation - the body responsible for the oversight, administration and finances of both FASB and its counterpart for state and local government, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board - that in 2006 he would re-evaluate his ability to complete that term. The foundation is also responsible for selecting the members of both the FASB and GASB boards. FASB's board is currently comprised of seven members.

Sage Software announced the promotion of Karl Grass to senior vice president and general manager of its Specialized Business Solutions unit. In his new role, Grass will assume a leadership role for Sage Abra HRMS, Sage FAS Fixed Assets, Sage Payroll Services and Sage TimeSheet, as well as additional products.Grass, who was named to Accounting Today's 2004 Top 100 Most Influential People list, will report to Jim Foster, Sage's executive vice president and general manager for Mid-Market Business Units.

RGL Forensic Accountants, a 21-partner firm specializing in damage analysis, fraud investigation and valuation, named Paul M. Brunner as chief executive.

PricewaterhouseCoopers announced the launch of a United States-based valuation practice offering a full range of valuation services. The Big Four firm has organized its valuation services into two teams. Offerings from the Transaction Services Accounting and Valuation Advisory practice are aimed at helping companies meet financial reporting and tax valuation requirements, especially those related to mergers and acquisitions. The practice will be lead by New York partner John Glynn, a former professional accounting fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission and PwC's representative to the Appraisal Issues Task Force. Meanwhile, Chicago-based partner Mark Haller will head the firm's Business Analytics team that will offer applied valuation analysis and advisory services to help companies make business decisions. Haller is already the leader of PwC's Economics and Strategy practice. Both teams will operate with a goal of providing quantitative support to help clients makes decisions on issues such as new market entry and competitive threats, dispute resolution, changing and emerging business models, internal investment choices, product pricing, product rationalization and extension, and customer value assessment. The service was specifically created with non-audit clients in mind. PwC said that with the U.S. launch, it is capable of delivering valuation services worldwide through a team of more than 1,550 valuation professionals.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the selection of directors for its Government Entities and Employee Plans departments, as well as a new chief information officer. Michael Julianelle will take over as the director of Government Entities in mid-November, while Joseph H. Grant will serve as the director of Employee Plans beginning Oct. 1. Both organizations are part of the IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. As of Sept. 17, Richard A. Spires has taken over as the agency’s new chief information officer. Julianelle replaces Preston R. Butcher, who will retire at yearend but remain in the broader TE/GE division to work on special projects until then. Julianelle will oversee the operations of the three Government Entities offices -- Federal, State and Local Governments, Indian Tribal Governments and Tax Exempt Bonds. Julianelle has been director of EP examinations since 2004. Before that, he served as the international area director in the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division. Grant replaces Carol Gold, the employee plans director since November 1999, who has accepted a teaching position with the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Va. The division is responsible for administering the law affecting more than one million public and private retirement plans that have almost $12 trillion under management. Grant joined the IRS in August 2005, as of director of the EP rulings & agreements division. Before that, he was chief operating officer and a deputy executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Spires, a private-sector information technology executive -- with software vendor Mantas Inc. and SRA International -- before joining the IRS in early 2004, will be responsible for virtually all aspects of the IRS’ information technology systems, including its mission-critical modernization program. Spires has had responsibility for more than 400 electronic systems within the IRS that support tax administration, as well as oversight of the projects within the Business Systems Modernization Program.

Still reeling from the critics who lambasted the Small Business Administration for its glacial pace in administering disaster loans following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the agency has named Patrick Rea to head the relief program.

Don Ogilvie, who served as president and chief executive of the American Bankers Association for two decades, has joined Big Four firm Deloitte as senior advisor to the firm’s banking and finance industry group.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced five director-level appointments in its Large and Mid-Size Business Division, which serves corporations, Subchapter S corporations and partnerships with assets greater than $10 million.New directors were named for four of the LMSB's five industries, as well as for the LMSB's pre-filing and technical guidance unit. Among the changes:

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Diego Tomás Ruiz, a long-time business executive with Spanish-language media group Univision Communications Inc., will serve as its new executive director.As the SEC's chief operating officer, Ruiz will oversee the agency's programs relating to budget planning and execution, the preparation of the agency's financial statements, human resources and employee relations, and administration of agency facilities. He will succeed Jim McConnell, who had served in the position since 1990, and retired this June.

Erik R. Sirri, an economist with expertise in the structure of securities markets, has been named the new director of market regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission."Erik brings to the SEC an exceptional insight into the future of securities exchanges, which has been a major focus of his work, and which will be indispensable in safeguarding the interests of investors as capital markets around the globe rapidly converge," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Shyam Sunder began his term as the 2006-07 president of the American Accounting Association in mid-August.Sunder, the James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics and Finance at the Yale School of Management, delivered his presidential address, "Imagined Worlds of Accounting," in Washington at the AAA 2006 Annual Meeting.

Accume Partners, a provider of internal auditing, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and risk management services, has named former UHY Advisors chief executive James B. McGuire as its president and chief operating officer.

The man who oversaw Freddie Mac's earnings restatement, as well as its financial reporting improvements, has joined the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

The era of Doug Burgum is almost over. That of Satya Nadella is just beginning.

Microsoft ended its search for a new leader for its Microsoft Business Solutions unit, naming insider Satya Nadella to succeed senior vice president Doug Burgum as head of the division which oversees Microsoft Dynamics and Small Business Products.

The global managing partner of KPMG's Audit & Advisory Services Center has been given the additional role of global chief information officer for KPMG International.

Edward W. Trott, a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board since 1999, will step down from his position in June 2007.