Meet the new IASB Chair, Sam Woods

Sam Woods, who became Chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on 1 October 2026, discusses what drew him to the role, the opportunities and challenges ahead as well as how he spends his time away from work.

What drew you to this role and how will your experience in public policy and financial regulation help you in it?

I have always seen the work of the IASB as a vital foundation of the global economy. And I’ve experienced that personally—financial statements prepared on the basis of IFRS Accounting Standards were an essential input to the work I did in my last role to support financial stability, particularly in relation to banks.

So when I was asked if I’d be interested in becoming part of the effort to develop and maintain the high-quality Accounting Standards at the IASB, my answer was: 100%!

Which parts of the role are you most looking forward to?

Three things. First, getting stuck into the technical issues coming to the IASB and learning from the depth of expertise that my fellow board members bring to the table. Second, getting to know a new group of stakeholders from all over the world—I grew up in a very international way and love that part of the job. And third, working with my wonderfully talented colleagues on the staff supporting the IASB—I’ve already met everyone and it’s a great team.

What role does financial reporting play in the global economy?

The other day, I was reading an article by a former colleague. He used a striking phrase, talking about accounting as the DNA of capitalism. Investment powers growth, and if investors haven’t got the information they need to make good decisions, then we will all be worse off. And we need high-quality accounting standards to deliver that outcome.

So I think that the work the IASB does makes us a core part of the DNA of the global economy—though I can see that adopting this analogy may earn me a stern rebuke from biologists, including one of my daughters …

What do you see as the main opportunities and challenges ahead for the IASB?

I think it’s an exciting time for the IASB, which was another motivation for joining the board. We face the big challenge of ensuring that our Standards keep pace with the ferocious rate of change we see in the world at the moment. And we have a great opportunity to consider that in the agenda-setting consultation we are planning for next year—I’m very interested to see what views my fellow board members give as we prepare for that, and what responses we get from around the world.

How do you see the role of standard-setting changing?

I think that the fundamentals of our work—scrupulous due process, technical excellence, independence of mind, wide consultation and careful consideration of all the evidence—are enduring and should not change. But the ways in which financial statements are prepared and consumed are already changing due to AI and it’s quite plausible that those changes will be far-reaching. We need to think about what implications that has for setting the underlying Standards—it is not straightforward.

How do you spend your time away from work?

I have a terrible weakness for cake so I try not to overdo my cake intake, and instead eat a lot of houmous which is almost (but not quite!) as good as cake. When not eating I also like to wing-foil, which is a relatively new water sport and becoming very popular in windy countries with coastline or lakes. And I enjoy travelling with my family—I took the chance of some time off before joining the IASB to do a long trip from Tallinn to Istanbul, all by public transport.