INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 25
“Audit as a profession is about protecting the
public, so we will always need public trust. To
achieve that in a global environment, we need
people speaking the same language.”
LEN JUI FCPA, INTERNATIONAL AUDITING AND ASSURANCES BOARD (IAASB)
“That’s something I really wanted to
do, and that I still do,” he says. “To travel
around the world taking pictures of people,
objects and shadows – while appreciating
the local culture, history and society and
talking to people – was a passion.”
ARTIST AND REALIST
“After I fulfilled my personal goal, the
reality was that I had to make a living,”
Jui says. “I chose accounting, and auditing
specifically, because of the mobility it
offered. It’s a little ironic, but auditing is
something that can take you away from
a desk job, away from sitting in an office.
It can enable you to travel around the
world, because business is so much more
internationalised. And, while I travel,
I can take my camera and take photos.”
After graduating from the University
of Miami with a masters of business
administration in accounting, Jui
knew he’d likely have to spend five or
six years in a major accounting firm
to earn his auditing stripes before
getting a chance to travel. “But I wasn’t
a very patient person,” he says.
In his first job with EY, his clients
were hospitals, old people’s homes
and medical clinics – not exactly
global, glamour businesses. He fed his
obsession with international matters by
reading The Economist. One day, he
saw an ad in the magazine for auditors
required by Arthur Andersen’s Shanghai
office. He applied and got the job.
Jui had not been back to Asia
since he left as a teenager. “It was a
real culture shock for me,” he says.
“I looked like everybody else, but I
didn’t behave like everybody else.”
However, just as he’d done several
times in the past, Jui wholeheartedly
threw himself into learning and
experiencing a new culture.
Eight years in China were followed
by a role with the US Government’s
capital markets securities regulator,
the US Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). In his role as the
associate chief accountant in the SEC’s
Office of the Chief Accountant in
Washington, DC, Jui was able to work
with regulators around the globe.
This exposure led to his being
appointed to the IAASB, first as a
technical adviser on the IAASB and
International Federation of Accountants
board, and currently as the organisation’s
deputy chair. He is also a member of
the ChiNext Board Listing Committee
with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and
a member of CPA Australia’s Centre of
Excellence for External Reporting.
WHERE IN THE WORLD
IS AUDIT HEADING?
Jui’s varied roles have given him a
unique view over the audit function,
including its current and future states.
The pace of change in audit, as in
almost every other facet of accounting,
is accelerating dramatically, Jui says.
This is partly because technology
has changed, but also because
of the pace of globalisation.
“We think about accounting and
auditing as a lot of numbers, a lot
of books and records on paper,” Jui
says. “But now you can do a business
transaction from your phone. You can
do your banking or order takeaway
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