re: The Auditors is a blog about the business of the Big 4 audit firms, exploring in an independent, objective, and often critical way the role, responsibility and regulation of the audit/accounting industry in the global capital markets.

Francine McKenna (@retheauditors on Twitter) has more than twenty-five years of experience in a range of industries in the consulting and professional services environment. This extensive experience includes tenure in leadership positions in both in US and abroad at PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint, JP Morgan, and Jefferson Wells/Manpower.

She is a freelance writer with credits in the Financial Times, Accountancy Age, Accountancy Magazine, and various financial, media, and technology blogs. She also blogs at The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by accounting and social marketing/media sites. Her public speaking credits include private training, university teaching, and speeches for the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Maryland Association of CPAs.

Her firm, McKenna Partners LLC, is a specialized consultancy, advising other professional services firms and industry on a limited basis, in particular if they have interests in Mexico/Latin America. She managed the Y2K PMO for JP Morgan in Latin America and was the first female Managing Director for BearingPoint in Latin America, responsible for the Industrial, Automotive and Transportation practice. She was a RVP for Jefferson Wells/Manpower and a Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, auditing the firm itself. She held various positions in accounting and financial management prior to her career in professional services and began her career as an internal auditor at CINB in Chicago.

She is fluent in Spanish, as well as her native English. She has lived/worked in México City, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Bogotá and Buenos Aires.

Ms. McKenna completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education course, "Leading Professional Services Firms," and is a CPA. She has taught in the School of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago and is on the Advisory Board of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Chicago. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy at Purdue University.

Blog Entries by Francine McKenna

KPMG Has A $1 Billion Problem At New Century

Posted April 8, 2009 | 09:58 AM (EST)


KPMG is being sued for $1bn by the liquidators of New Century, the collapsed subprime lender, in the first big case against an auditor arising from the current financial crisis.

If you've been reading my blog, re: The Auditors, you're very familiar with the New Century case. I wrote...

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Arthur Levitt Should Just Shut Up About AIG

Posted March 24, 2009 | 04:22 PM (EST)


The esteemed Arthur Levitt Jr. was the longest tenured SEC Chairman (1993-2001). He's an adviser to the Carlyle Group, board member of Bloomberg LP, and a board member of RiskMetrics Group, a public company that serves 70 of the 100 largest investment managers, 34 of the...

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The Button-Down Mafia: How the Public Accounting Firms Run a Racket on Investors and Thrive While Their Clients Fail

Posted March 16, 2009 | 04:23 PM (EST)


There's a popular Sicilian proverb:
Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci.
"He who is deaf, blind, and silent will live a hundred years in peace."

Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth, Tyco, Parmalat, Adelphia, AIG...You would think enough lessons had been learned. The financial markets are a mess...

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