Will Lifford, Chair

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Will Lifford was appointed chair of the Forum of Firms in September 2004.

Mr. Lifford recently retired from Grant Thornton where he served as the Senior Audit Partner in the United Kingdom and a member of Grant Thornton International's Audit Policy and Advisory Committee. He previously served as a member of Grant Thornton UK's Management Board and as its UK Head of Audit. Mr. Lifford has over 23 years experience as an audit partner covering a wide range of private and publicly listed companies and has been closely involved in the development of the audit approach and methodology used by the Grant Thornton International network of firms. He has also served as the Grant Thornton member of the Standards Working Group, established by the six largest international auditing networks with the objective of improving auditing and financial reporting standards.

From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Lifford served as a member of Urgent Issues Task Force of the UK Accounting Standards Board. He is also a co-author of Responding to Market Expectations - An Action Plan to Reduce the Expectation Gap, which was published in 1996 by the eight largest audit firms in Europe.