Accounting Hall of Fame 2000 induction: Shaun F. O'Malley

Accounting Historians Journal, The, Jun 2001 by Brown, Robert L, Jensen, Daniel L, O'Malley, Shaun F

August 14, 2000

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Remarks, Citation, and Response

SHAUN F. O'MALLEY

REMARKS by

Robert L. Brown

PricewaterhouseCoopers Good morning. I am pleased and honored to represent Shaun's Price Waterhouse partners at his induction ceremony into the Accounting Hall of Fame. For those of you who know him, you know this is an appropriate and well deserved honor.

It is also appropriate that this ceremony take place in Philadelphia. Julie and Shaun are both long time Philadelphians, having spent the majority of their lives here. Aside from several brief times when the Firm asked Shaun to work elsewhere, they have been in Philadelphia, and they always returned with a special enthusiasm.

Shaun has always approached endeavors with which he has been associated with a unique blend of intelligence, integrity, common sense and a great sense of humor. As I was reviewing my remarks with colleagues in preparation for this, one word they all used to describe Shaun was "class." That one word is certainly an appropriate summary of him.

When I review the citation with you in a moment, I am sure you will be struck, as I was, by the depth and breadth of his accomplishments. He certainly has made significant contributions to the profession he loves so much. Equally impressive are the substantive roles he has played in various commercial and community organizations. Collectively, these roles help to define an extremely talented and dedicated professional who has made substantive contributions to the organizations and individuals with whom he has worked and who richly deserves the honor which you are bestowing on him today. CITATION

prepared by

Daniel L. Jensen

The Ohio State University read by

Robert L. Brown

PricewaterhouseCoopers This respected accounting leader and statesman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1935, the fifth of eight children. His father was an attorney and civil servant. He attended Waldron-Mercy Academy for the first eight grades and completed his secondary education at Canterbury School, where he was a member of football, basketball, and baseball teams and also active in dramatics. In the fall of 1952, he entered the University of Pennsylvania as an English major but left after one semester, owing to a deteriorating family financial situation. He entered the U. S. Army serving until 1955 with the Seventh Army Occupation Force in Germany. His father died while he was in service.

Upon discharge from the Army, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania and, in the spring of 1956, transferred to the Wharton School. He financed his education through the GI Bill, summer jobs, and work at the University Library. He was also active in intramural athletics and a dramatics group and was president of his college fraternity.

In 1959, he graduated with a B.S. in Economics and a major in accounting and joined Price Waterhouse as a staff accountant. He remained in Philadelphia until 1966 when he was assigned to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, an experience which further fueled his long-held interest in international business. He returned to the U. S. and in 1968 was assigned to the firm's National Office Research Department supporting the firm's member on the Accounting Principles Board. In 1970, he was promoted to partner and returned to Philadelphia, where for the next eight years he served a wide variety of publicly-owned clients and earned the respect of clients and colleagues alike for his astute accounting and business advice to multinational companies entering new businesses and international markets. In 1978, he again transferred to the National Office for one year to support the newly elected firm's chairman in developing the firm's position on inflation accounting and a number of other pressing financial reporting issues. In 1980, he was named partner-in-charge of the Philadelphia office. In 1984 he was elected to the U.S. firm's governing board, and in 1987 he was elected Chairman and Senior Partner of the U. S. firm. He was elected Co-Chief Executive Officer of the worldwide organization in 1990 and appointed Chairman of the worldwide organization in 1992, a position he held until 1995, when he retired from Price Waterhouse.

His many contributions to the accounting profession include service as a member and chair of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation, during a period in which the Foundation maintained strong support for the FASB despite continuing criticism and attacks on the standard-setting body. He was also a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Emerging Markets Advisory Committee and many committees of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs.

In 1998, after retirement, he was appointed Chairman of the Public Oversight Board's Panel on Audit Effectiveness to carry out a project requested by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Arthur Levitt. Over the next one and onehalf years, he led a comprehensive investigation of the auditing profession that included on-site visits of accounting firm offices, reviews of a number of actual audit engagements, and interviews of participants at all levels. The project also included extensive consultation with practitioners, regulators, corporate officers, and internal auditors and a series of public hearings scheduled both before and after issuance of its comprehensive "Report and Recommendations" designed to improve audit effectiveness and unify and strengthen the system of governance of the accounting profession.