Mark A. Adler to Serve as Acting Director of Division of Enforcement and Investigations as Patrick Bryan Is Set to Depart

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today announced that Mark A. Adler will return to the PCAOB as Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement and Investigations (DEI). Current DEI Director Patrick Bryan is set to depart on September 15.  

Serving as DEI’s Director since January 2020, Mr. Bryan has overseen the organization's investigations and litigation of violations of PCAOB rules and other applicable securities regulations. Mr. Adler previously served nearly 10 years at the PCAOB before retiring in March 2020, including as Acting Director of DEI.  

“Strong enforcement is essential to the PCAOB’s work to protect investors,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams. “Patrick has proven himself as a capable and dedicated leader of our enforcement efforts. We thank him for his service and wish him well in his next chapter. Mark’s demonstrated experience will be invaluable in continuing our strong enforcement program as we begin the search for a new permanent Director, and we are grateful for his willingness to serve the PCAOB once again.” 

"I appreciate the confidence the Board placed in me, and I am excited to work alongside talented and dedicated colleagues at the PCAOB once again to protect investors by holding wrongdoers accountable,” said Mr. Adler.  

“For the past three years, it has been an honor to help execute the PCAOB’s important mission through enforcing compliance with our standards and rules,” said Mr. Bryan. “I am grateful to have had the chance to work not just with the extraordinary professionals on the Enforcement and Investigations team, but also with colleagues across the organization who strive each day to advance investor protection.” 

During Mr. Bryan’s tenure, DEI broke new enforcement ground for the PCAOB, including the organization’s largest money penalty ever imposed on an individual in a settled case, its first-ever sanctions for a failure reasonably to supervise an unregistered firm, and its first-ever imposed sanctions against a firm for issuing an audit report where a separate, unregistered firm had conducted the underlying audit. 

During Mr. Adler’s previous tenure as Acting Director of DEI from June 2018 to January 2020, the Division brought significant cases that addressed serious auditor misconduct at large and small audit firms involving both U.S. and non-U.S. auditors. Mr. Adler also represented the PCAOB in the Enforcement Working Group of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators, leading workshops on a variety of enforcement topics. Mr. Adler also previously served as Deputy Director and Chief Trial Counsel in DEI and oversaw and litigated complex enforcement proceedings. 

Before joining the PCAOB in 2010, Mr. Adler worked for 13 years at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Division of Enforcement, where he served as both Acting Chief and Deputy Chief Litigation Counsel. During his SEC tenure, he litigated and advised on a wide range of matters, including complex financial fraud, insider trading, offering fraud, and emergency relief cases. 

Mr. Adler spent more than nine years at the Department of Justice where he investigated, prosecuted, and tried major white collar criminal cases. Early in his career, Mr. Adler handled civil litigation and other general commercial matters in private practice in New York. 

Mr. Adler earned his B.S.E. in computer science and applied mathematics, summa cum laude, from Tufts University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. 

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