Center for Board Governance: Our mission

Mary Ann Cloyd is the Leader of PwC's Center for Board Governance which advises audit committees and boards of directors on emerging governance issues and leading practices. The Center also conducts research and provides perspectives on critical governance issues, including its Annual corporate directors survey.

Mary Ann has over 35 years of public accounting experience serving multinational corporate clients in a variety of industries. She currently serves on PwC's Global Board of Partners and Principals and served two terms on the US Board of Partners and Principals. Mary Ann also has substantial operational experience. She was the Tax Market Leader for the Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas tax practices for many years. As a senior partner in the firm, she continues to work closely with clients.

On the US Board Mary Ann chaired the Risk Management, Ethics & Compliance Committee and the Partner Admissions Committee. She was also on the Management Executive Compensation Committee and People Committee. On the Global Board she is currently on the Risk and Operations Committee and was previously on the Clients Committee.

Active in professional and community organizations, Mary Ann is on the Board of Trustees of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Charitable Foundation, Inc. She was President of the Foundation through September 30, 2011, a position she held for many years. She is also on the UCLA Iris Cantor Women's Center Advisory Board, the Board of Directors for the Geffen Playhouse and the Board of Directors of the California Chamber of Commerce. She has previously been a member of the United Way of Southern California Women Leaders' Steering Committee and the Baylor Business School Advisory Board. In addition, she has been on the Boards of Junior Achievement and the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles where she served as Chairman of Volunteers.

Catherine helps boards and audit committees apply leading practices and understand the impact of emerging regulations on their activities. She has worked extensively with boards and directors from a number of countries, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, the United States, and Venezuela.

Catherine co-wrote the Audit Committee Effectiveness -- What works best and Board Effectiveness -- What works best books, which were published in 2011. NACD Directorship magazine in 2011 named her for the fifth consecutive year as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance in the United States. She also speaks frequently at director conferences.

Catherine is a Certified Public Accountant (licensed in New Jersey) and a Chartered Accountant (from Canada) and holds a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Since 2009, Don has been a partner in PwC's Center for Board Governance, which provides thought leadership, points of view on contemporary governance issues, and training to prominent boards of directors and the governance community. He provides practical governance perspectives and personal insights, as well as evaluating and benchmarking activities relative to his personal experience and leading practices. With over 35 years of cumulative knowledge and experience, and having served as the lead engagement partner of several of PwC's Global 100 clients, Don's career has spanned a wide variety of industries from technology and software to industrial products and oil and gas.

Don served as PwC's Global Software Industry Leader for five years, and he uses his information technology background to address related board considerations regarding emerging technologies. He was the chief architect of the firm’s research on board oversight of information technology and the resulting publication Directors and IT - What Works Best. He has also worked on several investigations. This experience gives him a unique perspective in discussing relevant board oversight considerations, including mitigating related fraud risks.

As a recognized public speaker at conferences and forums, Don has addressed a variety of topics, including corporate governance, industry business practices, SEC reporting, and emerging technologies. He recently presented at the annual national conferences of Corporate Board Member and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). He has served as a faculty member and written many courses for NACD's professional development director training programs, programs sponsored by the Colorado State Society of CPAs, and the Professional Development Institute.

Don has frequently been quoted in the press and in periodicals, such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Investor's Business Daily, and CFO Magazine. He has also authored or co-authored a number of other works, including Audit committee effectiveness—What Works Best; Software Industry Accounting, published by Wiley & Sons; and PwC's User Friendly Guide to Software Revenue Recognition.

Don was the managing partner of the Austin office. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.