Pricewaterhouse Partner to Head FASB

The accounting profession’s top rule-making body tapped PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Robert Herz to succeed outgoing Chairman Edmund Jenkins, marking a significant change to the oversight of an industry tarnished by the Enron Corp. scandal.

The Connecticut-based Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets U.S. accounting standards, said Herz, 48, will assume the chairman’s post upon completion of Jenkins’ five-year term June 30.

Herz is a PricewaterhouseCoopers board member and leads the firm’s professional, technical, risk and quality operations.