Speakers

Rudi Bless

Chief Accounting Officer, Bank of America

 Rudi Bless is the Chief Accounting Officer at Bank of America. He is responsible for the company’s financial filings to the U.S. SEC, as well as the financial, statutory, and regulatory reporting at a consolidated level and for all legal entities globally. He is also responsible for overseeing financial reporting controls and assessments, managing, and maintaining financial data and systems, and oversees the management of the company’s income tax planning and compliance.

Rudi joined Bank of America in November 2014. Previously he was with Credit Suisse (CS), where he held various roles over 12 years, including as deputy chief financial officer and chief accounting officer. While at CS he led a number of major initiatives, including managing the implementation of Basel 3 for capital and liquidity and a finance transformation with a focus on data, systems and global footprint.
Prior to joining CS, Rudi spent 20 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, Frankfurt and Zurich. He was a partner for eight years and focused on clients in the financial services area.

Rudi chairs the Financial Executives International (FEI) Committee on Corporate Reporting, FEI’s technical committee of approximately 50 Chief Accounting Officers and Corporate Controllers, primarily from the Fortune 100.

He has also served on a number of external Boards and Councils, including as a Board member for the Value Reporting Foundation and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Foundation, as well as a member of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council and the International Financial Reporting Standards Advisory Council.

Rudi holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Delaware, is a New York State Certified Public Accountant and previously a German Certified Public Accountant (Wirtschaftspruefer).

Candace H. Duncan

Board Member: Discover Financial Services / Teleflex
Retired Partner: KPMG LLP

Candace “Candy” H. Duncan retired from KPMG in November of 2013, after more than 35 years with the firm. From 2009 until 2013, Candy served as managing partner for the Washington Metropolitan Area, a role in which she was responsible for leading the firm’s quality growth priorities across its Audit, Tax, and Advisory functions. She was elected to the KPMG Board in 2009 and served as chair of the Nominating Committee until her retirement.

Her extensive experience has been gained through assisting her clients to resolve all types of accounting and operational issues. She has assisted a number of clients in registering their initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and bond offerings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She also has assisted publicly and privately held clients in seizing timely opportunities including mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and consolidations.

Nigel J. James

Senior Associate Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Chief Accountant

Nigel James is a Senior Associate Chief Accountant in the Office of the Chief Accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He joined the SEC staff in July 2010. His responsibilities include working with securities regulators around the world on the development of international financial and sustainability reporting standards, auditing standards and other initiatives to promote investor protection and confidence in global capital markets. He was previously appointed as the Vice Chair of IOSCO’s Committee on Accounting, Audit and Disclosure (Committee 1) for a two-year term through October 2020. He has represented the SEC on the IFRS Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum and the IFRS Advisory Council. He has also been an IOSCO representative on the Consultative Advisory Groups (CAGs) of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA).

Prior to joining the SEC, Nigel worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 14 years, both as an auditor and in the firm’s U.S. National Independence Office.

Nigel earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Charleston Southern University and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Virginia. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Maryland, U.S.

Thomas J. Kim

Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP

Thomas J. Kim is a partner in the Washington D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, where he is a member of the firm’s Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Group. Mr. Kim focuses his practice on a broad range of SEC disclosure and regulatory matters, as well as corporate governance, environmental social governance, and compliance issues. He also advises clients on SEC enforcement investigations – as well as boards of directors and independent board committees on internal investigations – involving disclosure, registration, corporate governance, and auditor independence issues.

Mr. Kim served at the SEC for six years as the Chief Counsel and Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, and for one year as Counsel to the Chairman.

Elizabeth Seeger

Board Member, ISSB

Elizabeth Seeger was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in July 2022, effective November 2022.

Ms Seeger has over 20 years’ experience of standard-setting, investment and working on sustainability topics. She joined the ISSB from global investment firm KKR, where she served as Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, responsible for helping oversee the firm's consideration of sustainability matters throughout KKR’s investment process and part of KKR's Global Impact team. She also oversaw KKR’s public sustainability reporting efforts, including the development of SASB and TCFD-aligned reporting.

Before joining KKR in 2009, she served as a project manager in the corporate partnerships programme (now known as EDF+Business) of Environmental Defence Fund and a consultant with the Corporate Executive Board (CEB, now known as Gartner), where she advised companies from a broad range of industries in Europe and the United States. Before CEB, Ms Seeger was an associate at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit organisation focused on environmental law and policy research and education.

Ms Seeger served on the SASB Standards Board as an inaugural member, but began her standard-setting work when becoming a member of the SASB Standards Council in 2012. She is a 2013 Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and earned a BA in Environmental Studies with honours from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.