Grant Thornton has announced the appointment of Merilyn Gwan to the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board by the Australian Financial Reporting Council.

Merilyn Gwan is partner and head of Grant Thornton’s Assurance Quality practice. She is the first person from the company to be appointed to the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) under the Australian Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

“As part of my current role in quality and assurance at Grant Thornton, I already provide regular feedback to the AUASB from a practical auditing perspective, so it is a natural progression to become an official member of the Board,” Gwan said.

“As the first person from Grant Thornton to be appointed to the AUASB, it confirms our ongoing commitment to good governance and transparency within our audit services and across our firm.

“I will also leverage my expertise in quality and assurance to ensure the standards encourage best practice throughout the auditing industry as a whole and effectively measure audit quality outcomes.”

In her role with the board, Gwan will provide professional guidance on the practical elements of the Australian Auditing Standards set by the AUASB.

She has over 25 years’ experience working in Australia, the UK and France with a focus on assurance quality, regulatory interaction and risk management.

Alongside her appointment to the AUASB, Gwan sits on the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Reporting Committee, the Australian Public Policy Committee (APPC) Sustainability Group, and is a fellow of CA ANZ.

She is also a member of the Grant Thornton International Audit Quality Group and the Methodology and Learning Group.