Mark Olson, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, will leave the Board effective July 31, ending a tumultuous three-year term where he played a key role in amending compliance obligations for Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Olson has been chairman of the PCAOB since July 1, 2006, when he was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to his work on the PCAOB, he served on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

In regard to his resignation, Olson said, "the decision is entirely personal and reflects my desire at this time of life to establish new priorities." He also indicated that he does not plan to serve in a consulting capacity to the PCAOB, but will continue with his work to promote financial literacy.

Olson's most notable achievement while chairman was to deliver Auditing Standard No. 5, a relaxed set of guidelines for auditors to use while inspecting companies' internal controls over financial reporting as required by Section 404. The Board had originally set out an exacting burden in Auditing Standard No. 2, which led to howls of protests by corporations that auditors were unnecessarily meticulous in their 404 audits. After much protest and study by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB, the Board finally published AS5 in 2007 to help relieve compliance costs.

Olson's departure also leaves the PCAOB leaderless at a critical time: the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging the PCAOB as unconstitutional. The improbable case has worked its way through the court system for two years, and now will appear before the high court sometime this fall. The justices are likely to render a decision next spring, and if they rule in favor of the plaintiffs, the very existence of the PCAOB and the SOX compliance regime generally will be jeopardized.

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