Cynthia M. Fornelli
Executive Director
Center for Audit Quality

Cindy Fornelli is the Executive Director for the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ). The CAQ was founded to serve investors, public company auditors and the markets.

The Center is dedicated to enhancing investor confidence and public trust in the global capital markets by fostering high quality performance by public company auditors; convening and collaborating with other stakeholders to advance the discussion of critical issues requiring action and intervention; and advocating policies and standards that promote public company auditors’ objectivity, effectiveness and responsiveness to dynamic market conditions.

As the Executive Director, Fornelli is responsible for carrying out the mission and vision of the Center's Governing Board, which represents the public company auditing firms, the American Institute of CPAs and independent public members.

As the point person in raising the profile of the CAQ on audit-related issues, she has been named one of Directorship magazine's 100 most influential people on corporate governance and in the boardroom. Fornelli was named to Accounting Today’s 2009 list of the most influential people in accounting for the third consecutive year. In 2009, Fornelli was named to the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society’s Board of Advisors as a member of the class of 2012.

A frequent guest speaker and panelist at prominent business community events, she has been interviewed or quoted by media outlets including Fox Business Channel, National Public Radio, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg News.

Prior to becoming the Center's Executive Director, Fornelli was the Regulatory and Conflicts Management Executive at Bank of America. In that role, she was responsible for managing enterprise-wide conflicts that potentially could arise from the bank's delivery of multiple products and services across several business divisions, particularly as these conflicts related to securities regulation. Fornelli also had responsibility for coordinating enterprise regulatory relations with securities and banking regulators.

Prior to joining Bank of America, Fornelli was Deputy Director of the Division of Investment Management of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she was responsible for implementing SEC policy, rules and regulations in the investment company and investment advisory industries.