Philip Cowperthwaite

Country: Canada

Phil Cowperthwaite became a member of the IFAC Small and Medium Practices (SMP) Committee in 2012. He was nominated by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). He also previously served on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) from 2006 to 2011.

Mr. Cowperthwaite is a partner of Cowperthwaite Mehta, a nine-person firm in Toronto, Canada. His primary area of practice is providing audit services to small not-for-profit micro-entities, those organizations at the very smallest end of the reporting-entity spectrum. Mr. Cowperthwaite also provides assurance and tax services to a number of non-public commercial entities and individuals. Before founding his firm in 1986, he worked for Ernst & Young in Toronto and The Hague and Amsterdam, Netherlands providing assurance services to public and multi-national clients.

Since 1986, Mr. Cowperthwaite has been actively involved in setting auditing and assurance standards with the CICA. He served as a member of the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB) from 1997 to 2000. He has chaired the IAASB Task Forces to clarify International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 220 and International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC) 1, the Task Force issuing ISA 265, and the Task Force on compilation engagements and engagements to review historical financial statements.

Mr. Cowperthwaite frequently speaks and writes on the topic of auditing micro-entities both effectively and efficiently using ISAs, drawing on techniques he employs in his day-to-day audit practice in Canada.