Aulana Louise Peters
Born Aulana Louise Pharis in Shreveport Louisiana in 1941, the daughter of Clyde A. and Eula Mae (Faulkner) Pharis, Peters studied philosophy and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of New Rochelle (1963) and earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California in 1973. Although not an accountant, Peters has had a profound and sustained influence on accounting and auditing scholarship, professional practice, professional standard setting, and corporate governance. She is a retired partner with Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher LLP who focused on accountants’ liability and securities litigation. Her husband, Bruce, is a retired physician.
Among her distinctive service is her role as a Commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 1984-1988. She was the first African American and the third woman to serve on the Commission. In 2003, the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni named her the 11th recipient of the William O. Douglas Award for having made significant contributions to the development of the Federal Securities Law, to the SEC, and the financial community. In 2008, she received the Horatio Alger Award, which recognizes dedicated civic, corporate, and cultural leaders who succeeded despite adversity. In 2010, she was awarded the Medal of Honor by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for distinguished service to the accounting profession by a non-accountant.
Peters’ ability to relate securities law to investors’ interests and the practicalities of accounting measurement and disclosure of risks made her a valuable contributor to the deliberations of the Financial Accounting Standards Board Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (1989-1992), the Steering Committee for the Financial Accounting Standards Financial Reporting Project (1990-1992), AICPA Board of Directors and Governing Council (1992-1994), Panel on Audit Effectiveness (1998-2000), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the AICPA (2000-2002), International Federation of Accountants’ Public Interest Oversight Board for Auditing, Education and Professional Ethics Standards (2005-2012), and United States Comptroller General’s Accountability Advisory Council (2001-2020).
Her service on public company boards of directors has included manufacturing, financial, and aerospace corporations. Because of her understanding of the audit profession and her demonstrated commitment to the public interest, Peters testified before Congress in the legislative hearings prior to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. She subsequently served on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Advisory Council (2007-2013).
An early advocate of international accounting standards and for disclosure to investors of material information on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters and for the establishment of standards to guide those disclosures, she served as a director of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Foundation from 2013 to 2016.
Aulana Louise Peters is the 116th member of The Accounting Hall of Fame.
Charles Howard Noski
Charles Howard Noski, born August 23, 1952, in Eureka, California, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo & Company in March 2020. He is a retired vice chairman and chief financial officer of Bank of America Corporation. He was chief financial officer of Northrop Grumman Corporation from 2003 until 2005 and a member of Northrop Grumman’s board of directors. Noski was chief financial officer of AT&T Corporation from 1999 until 2002 and vice chairman of the board of directors during 2002. From 1990 until 1999, he served in senior leadership positions with Hughes Electronics Corporation, including chief financial officer, president and chief operating officer, and a member of the board of directors.
Noski began his accounting career as a staff accountant at Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte) in 1973 and rose to partner with Deloitte & Touche, where he served some of the firm’s largest and most complex clients. Noski is lead independent director of Booking Holdings Inc., and a director and member of the finance and investment committee of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. He previously served as a director and chairman of the audit committee of Microsoft Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Avon Products, Inc., Booking Holdings Inc., and Wells Fargo, and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (2016-2019), chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, and a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Noski is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Financial Executives International (FEI), and the Audit Committee Leadership Network-North America, and served as an inaugural member of the Ernst & Young Independent Audit Quality Committee (2019-2020). He was inducted into the inaugural class of the FEI Hall of Fame in 2006. Noski earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Accountancy from California State University, Northridge. A long-time supporter of accounting education, he received the school’s distinguished alumnus award in 2002, and an honorary doctorate in 2007. He and his wife Lisa have endowed the Noski Family scholarships for accounting students at Northridge. Noski’s impact includes his public service at the Financial Accounting Foundation and his deep and far-reaching experience across multiple facets of the accounting profession.
From his role as Chairman of the Board of Wells Fargo, to serving as chief financial officer for some of the world’s preeminent organizations, to his early days as an auditor, he has led from the front on numerous accounting issues for nearly 50 years and served as a model and mentor to many.
Charles Howard Noski is the One Hundred and Tenth member of The Accounting Hall of Fame.