Editorial

This month’s edition of WAR includes the second part of an interview with Andreas Barckow, chair of the IASB. Dr Barckow discusses his ambitions for the Board, his views about the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board, and explains the next steps for certain projects. Readers may recall that in the first part of the interview, Dr Barckow spoke about the composition of the IASB and his goals for changing it. Since then a number of new appointments have been made. An article in this month’s edition looks at the diversity of the Board in terms of geographical representation, and the backgrounds of Board members, which can be broadly linked to stakeholder representation. At the time of going to press, the final Board appointment, which takes the membership back up to its full capacity of 14 members, was announced by the Trustees. Florian Esterer recently worked at Bank J. Safra Sarasin as Head of Core Equities. In their comments, chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, Erkki Liikanen, and Dr Barckow have both highlighted the importance of Mr Esterer’s investor experience for the Board. Historically, it has proved difficult for the Board to include many members with investor experience, even though it is seeking to develop standards that will meet investors’ information needs. It can thus be seen as something of a coup for Dr Barckow that he now has three members bringing an investor perspective to his Board table. In terms of analysis by gender, the Board now comprises nine men and five women (unchanged from the recent past when Hans Hoogervorst’s Board was similarly split), but leaves room for a future move towards gender equality. The appointment of the vice-chair is due to be announced before the end of the year.