Russ Golden, current technical director at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will assume the board seat created by the surprise early retirement of Chairman Robert Herz effective Oct. 1.

Golden was appointed by FASB’s overseer, the Financial Accounting Foundation, to fulfill Herz’s unexpired term through June 2012. Herz’s chairman duties will be assumed by current FASB member Leslie Seidman.

Golden has served as technical director since June 2008, responsible for overseeing FASB staff work on all standard-setting activities and serving as chair of FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force. As such, he is following in the footsteps of FASB member Larry Smith, who was appointed to his current term after serving as technical director and chairman of the EITF.

FAF Chairman John Brennan noted Golden brings an “intimate familiarity” with the projects the board is currently pursuing, which will serve the FASB well through the transition. The FAF is still searching for two additional board members to serve two new positions the FAF re-established recently after eliminating the positions only a few years earlier.

In a written statement on the transition, Brennan said the FAF is working with two search firms to identify candidates for the two re-established board seats and the chairman’s post, expecting to finalize appointments by early 2011. The FAF is considering candidates both internally and externally to assume the chairman’s seat permanently, he said.

Brennan railed against speculation that the new seats will be given to accounting experts who have bank-friendly views on the use of fair value in financial statements. The FASB is collecting feedback – and plenty of it – on its proposal to require companies to record more of their financial assets and liabilities at fair value. Herz cast the tie-breaking vote to publish the proposal in its current form while Seidman favored an approach that would give greater consideration to a company's long-term plans to hold troubled assets when assigning values.

“FASB members are not selected based in whole or in part on their views on any technical accounting issues,” said Brennan, who added it would violate the FAF’s bylaws to follow such an approach. Instead, he said, the FAF is looking for candidates with “diverse and varied backgrounds and experience,” including users of financial statements, or those with experience in financial reporting for global companies or for small or private companies.

One of Golden’s earliest duties as a new member of FASB will be to participate in roundtables on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 to hear input on the contentious financial instruments proposal. The board will travel to Baruch College in New York for two three-hour sessions on Oct. 18, and then hold two more three-hour sessions at FASB headquarters in Norwalk, Conn.

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