The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has named Martin Baumann as chief auditor and director of professional standards. In this role, Baumann will be charged with advising the Board on the establishment of auditing and related professional standards.

Baumann joined the PCAOB in 2006 as director of the Office of Research and Analysis. “Over the past three years, he led our Office of Research and Analysis in its valuable work supporting the risk-based inspection program, preparing audit practice alerts with the standards division, and reaching out to investors, auditors, issuers, and other regulators,” said PCAOB Chairman Mark Olson.

Before joining the PCAOB, Baumann had a 33-year career at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he served as Deputy Chairman of the World Financial Services Practice, Global Banking Leader, and partner-in-charge of the audits of some of PwC’s largest clients. In 2003, he was asked to join Freddie Mac, after it announced financial reporting problems, to lead the company’s restatement and related improvements in its financial reporting and disclosure practices.