Three ex-Big Five staffers join FRC's Conduct Committee

THE FRC has appointed a trio of former Big Five alumni to its Conduct Committee.

David Cannon, Helen Jones and Sean Collins all took up their new roles on 1 September 2015. Cannon also joins the accounting and audit watchdog’s Monitoring Committee.

The Conduct Committee is responsible for overseeing the FRC’s Conduct Division in its work promoting high quality corporate reporting.

Commenting on the appointments, David Childs, chair of the Conduct Committee, said: “I am delighted to welcome David, Helen and Sean to the FRC’s Conduct Committee. Their experience and diverse backgrounds will contribute to the FRC’s strong conduct arm and the work of the Conduct Committee in overseeing our audit quality and corporate reporting reviews, professional oversight and professional discipline teams.”

David Cannon joined Ernst and Young in 1976, becoming an audit partner in 1986 before leaving in 1995 to become Group CFO of BZW, Barclays’ then investment bank. He returned to E&Y in 1998 as managing partner of the London Financial Services Office. In 2003, he became CFO for Deutschebank’s global investment bank. In 2012 he retired and is currently a NED of Morgan Stanley’s European business where he chairs the regional audit committee.

GlaxoSmithKline vice president Helen Jones is also head of audit & assurance – responsible for providing assurance to the board that risks are appropriately managed. Joining GSK in 2008, Jones – who trained with Arthur Andersen – was responsible for managing its global tax affairs in over 100 countries. Before this she held a number of roles at Reuters rising to global head of tax and treasury in 2003. She trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in London.

Ex KPMG staffer, Sean Collins’ career has spanned the audit, taxation, financial investigations and consulting disciplines. Anointed as partner on joining the Malaysian practice in 1985, he went on to direct the Asia-Pacific practice from 2009 to 2012 from Singapore.

He is currently the audit committee chairman for Jersey Telecom, Crown Representative at the Cabinet Office, a member of Council of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and deputy chairman for Arthritis Research UK.