CohnReznick, an advisory, assurance and tax firm in the United States, hired William (Bill) Gassel as a partner in its national assurance group. Based in Stamford, CT, Gassel focuses on assessing, developing, structuring and managing internal quality control monitoring systems.
With extensive experience working within the regulatory environment, Gassel comes to CohnReznick with more than two decades of Big Four accounting firm experience, eight years of audit regulation experience and three years of Fortune 125 company experience. He is skilled at preparing engagement teams selected for PCAOB engagement inspections and addressing PCAOB questions and comments.
Gassel led a team that developed the monitoring program and approach for a system of quality management under ISQM 1 and, in this role, performed reviews of U.S. and foreign member firm systems of quality control. His SEC experience includes helping to design a company-wide approach and implementation of SEC Section 404 for internal controls.
“As the public accounting industry prepares for the implementation of new PCAOB and AICPA quality control (QC) rulemaking, it is critical we continue to evolve our internal control processes to maintain compliance across regulatory bodies,” Robert Hilbert, managing partner, assurance at CohnReznick, said. “Bill’s strong leadership skills and proven capabilities developing and implementing innovative QC enhancements across teams and industries will play a key role in advancing CohnReznick’s assurance QC environment and processes.”
Before joining CohnReznick, Gassel was the ongoing monitoring leader for a Big Four firm. He was responsible for reviewing in-process engagements and leveraging firm and audit engagement data for analysis related to audit quality, including audit quality indicators. He earned an MBA from Washington University and a BS, accounting, summa cum laude, from Missouri State University. Gassel is a licensed CPA in Connecticut and Missouri.
