Former regulator and accounting standard setter Ian Mackintosh is being remembered by friends and colleagues as a key figure in shaping public and private sector accounting practices in the public interest.
He died last Thursday, aged 77.
Mackintosh established himself domestically and globally as a no-nonsense accounting standard setter and regulator. He was part of a cohort of reformers who helped bring accrual accounting into the public sector.
His list of achievements in Australia over four decades in accounting standard-setting included being a chairman of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board in Australia, a member and deputy chair of the Australian Accounting Standards Board and chief accountant at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The influence Mackintosh exerted went beyond Australia’s borders, however, as he served at various times on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board as its chairman, deputy chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, chairman of the United Kingdom’s Accounting Standards Board and a stint as a financial management manager with the World Bank.
Both the IFRS Foundation, which oversees the International Accounting Standards Board, and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board remembered Mackintosh’s contribution on the international stage over the weekend.
International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board chair Ian Carruthers said Mackintosh was unique among international standard setters because of his involvement in both public and private sector standard-setting.
“He was a dedicated and passionate leader who had an enormous impact on the international financial reporting landscape,” Carruthers said.
Keith Kendall, the chairman of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, said the AASB was saddened to hear of Mackintosh’s passing.
“Ian was a significant contributor to accounting standard setting not only in Australia but internationally over many decades,” Kendall said. “The accounting standard-setting community owes Ian a great debt of gratitude for such distinguished service.”
Former commonwealth auditor-general Ian McPhee said Mackintosh was among those that helped changed reporting practices in Australia and globally over four decades.
“Ian contributed greatly to the development of enhanced financial reporting in the public and private sectors in Australia and internationally over many years,” McPhee said. “He was the chair of the Australian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board in the early 1990s in the lead-up to the adoption of accrual reporting by all Australian jurisdictions.
“Ian was a good friend to many and very modest about his achievements. He will be greatly missed.”
Former IASB member Warren McGregor said that Mackintosh was unafraid of putting public interest and advancement of financial reporting first even when pressure from commercial interests came to bear on controversial topics such as control in consolidation accounting.
McGregor said that the appointment of a foreigner in Mackintosh – a New Zealander who made Australia home – as chairman of the UK Accounting Standards Board later in his career was “unprecedented as far as I know”.
“I believe one of the main reasons he got the job was that he was regarded as a ‘safe pair of hands’,” McGregor said. “The comment was made to me by a very senior person involved in the selection process.”
A former technical director with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, Paul Sutcliffe, said Mackintosh was “principled, perceptive, highly intelligent, focused and thorough”, and that he engaged with fellow standard setters, staff and the broader accounting community in the pursuit of good standards.
A former member of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, Colin Parker, worked as a technical staffer supporting the audit board when Mackintosh first began his involvement in standard setting in the 1980s.
“It was a pleasure to have started my standard-setting career knowing Ian Mackintosh,” Parker said.
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