Financial Accounting Foundation names new leaders and board members

The Financial Accounting Foundation’s Board of Trustees has selected Dalia Blass to serve as its new board chair and appointed Erin Hill as the FAF’s new executive director.

Blass’s three-year term as chair starts Jan. 1, 2026. She will also be eligible for a second three-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2029. Blass succeeds current FAF chair Edward Bernard, whose term ends on Dec. 31, 2025. She is the senior investment management partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, where she leads the investment management practice providing strategic and regulatory advice to asset managers, funds, fund boards and service providers on various regulatory, governance, compliance, examination and enforcement matters.

Before joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Blass was the senior managing director and global head of external affairs at BlackRock and previously held various roles at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including more than three years as director of the Division of Investment Management. She’s a graduate of the American University, School of International Service, and the Columbia University School of Law.

Hill joins the FAF on Oct. 1, 2025. She succeeds John Auchincloss, who will formally retire from the FAF on Dec. 31, 2025, after a brief transition period this fall. Hill is a corporate executive with over 30 years of experience on Wall Street. Most recently, she served as chief administrative officer at BNY Mellon. Previously, Hill was head of consumer banking and wealth management at JPMorgan Chase, leading more than 50,000 bankers and financial advisors. She also served as CFO of JPMorgan’s private equity business and COO of its legal and compliance functions. Prior to JPMorgan, Hill was a corporate attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Hill began her career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen. She is a CPA and a graduate of Fordham University and Columbia University.  

The FAF oversees both the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The FAF Board of Trustees also announced on Tuesday the reappointment of Frederick Cannon to FASB. His first five-year term began on July 1, 2021; his second term will start on July 1, 2026, and conclude on June 30, 2031.

Cannon previously served as executive vice president and global director of research for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a Stifel Company, where he was responsible for global equity research and served as a member of the board of directors of the KBW broker-dealer. 

The FAF Board of Trustees also reappointed Jacqueline Reck to serve on GASB. Reck was originally appointed to the GASB board on July 1, 2022, and will serve her second term effective July 1, 2026, concluding on June 30, 2032.

Reck is the Robert Keith Professor in the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy at the University of South Florida. Concurrently with the start of her first term at GASB, she stepped down after serving for 10 years as the associate dean for Financial Management and Academic Affairs for the Muma College of Business.  

In addition to teaching financial and governmental and not-for-profit accounting, she has focused her research on governmental accounting and auditing, accounting information systems, and the reporting and use of financial information. In 2020, the American Accounting Association’s Government and Nonprofit Section recognized Reck with the Enduring Lifetime Contribution Award.