Philip Cowperthwaite

Country: Canada

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

Mr. Cowperthwaite is a partner of Cowperthwaite Mehta, a public accounting firm in Toronto, Canada. His primary area of practice is providing audit services to small not-for-profit micro-entitites, 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 Force to clarify ISA 220, QualityControl for an Audit of Financial Statements and ISQC1, the International Standard on Quality Control, and the Task Force issuing ISA 265, Communicating Deficiencies in Internal Control to Those Charged with Governance and Management. Mr. Cowperthwaite is currently chairing the Task Forces on Compilation Engagements and Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements.