William McDonough served as the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for ten years before assuming the post of Chairman of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in June 2003. The PCAOB, based in Washington, D.C. is a private, non-profit corporation, created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to protect investors in U.S. securities markets and to further the public interest by ensuring that public companies’ financial statements are audited according to the highest standards of quality, independence, and ethics.

While at the New York Fed, McDonough served as chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a multinational body charged with modernizing international banking standards. He spent 22 years in the private sector banking at the First Chicago Corp., retiring in 1989 as vice-chairman of the board. Early in his career, he served for five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy and subsequently worked for the U.S. State Department for six years. He earned an MA in economics from Georgetown and a BA in economics from Holy Cross College.

McDonough is married with six children and two step-daughters. A first-generation Irish American, his father emigrated to America from County Roscommon and his mother emigrated from County Mayo.