Speaker

Leslie Seidman

Leslie Seidman is an independent corporate director with over 30 years of experience in the accounting profession. Ms. Seidman serves as a member of the board of directors and chair of the audit committees of General Electric Company (GE: NYSE) and Moody’s Corporation (MCO: NYSE). She is also an advisor to idaciti, Inc., a cloud-based analytical platform for structured financial and nonfinancial data, including environmental, social and governance (ESG). She recently completed two terms as a Public Governor for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

Ms. Seidman is a former Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), where she also served as a member of the Board from 2003-2013. As FASB Chairman, Ms. Seidman collaborated with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and other regulators to improve financial reporting in the U.S. capital markets. She helped launch the FASB's Private Company Council, to address concerns about the cost and complexity of accounting for small businesses. Ms. Seidman guided the FASB's joint agenda with the International Accounting Standards Board to converge U.S. and international accounting standards. Ms. Seidman represented the U.S. in the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters and was an Observer to the International Integrated Reporting Council. During her tenure, the FASB assumed responsibility for maintaining the U.S. GAAP XBRL (digital) taxonomy, which allows financial information to be read by humans and machines. 

Previously, Ms. Seidman was an auditor with Arthur Young & Co. (now EY), a Vice President of Accounting Policy with J.P. Morgan & Co., and a financial reporting consultant. Ms. Seidman is the original author of Financial Instruments: A Comprehensive Guide to Accounting and Reporting (currently in its 17th edition from Wolters Kluwer).

Ms. Seidman is a 2020 inductee into the Accounting Hall of Fame. She has been named to the National Association of Corporate Directors’ (NACD) Directorship 100™ twice (2020 and 2011), and was named as one of the most influential corporate directors by Women, Inc. in 2018. Previously, she was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Institute of Management Accountants, for launching and continuing to support the Women’s Leadership Series (2015). She is a member of the NACD, Women Corporate Directors and Financial Executives International, where she previously served on the board.

Ms. Seidman earned a B.A. in English from Colgate University and a M.S. in accounting from New York University Stern School of Business.  She is a CPA and is certified in cybersecurity oversight by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and in ESG oversight by Competent Boards (GCB.D).