Leslie Seidman

Leslie F. Seidman is an independent corporate director with over thirty years of experience in the accounting profession.  Ms. Seidman currently serves as a member of the board and chair of the audit committees of General Electric Company and Moody’s Corporation.   She is an advisor to idaciti, Inc., an analytical platform for structured financial and nonfinancial data, including ESG.  Previously, she served as a Public Governor for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

A CPA by training, Ms. Seidman spent the bulk of her career working on accounting and disclosure policies and standards, as an auditor with EY, in industry with J.P. Morgan, then with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as a member of the technical staff, and then as a member of the standard-setting board, which she chaired in the final years of her term.  In that capacity, Ms. Seidman worked closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators to improve financial reporting in the U.S. capital markets, including the introduction of digital reporting standards. She guided the FASB’s joint agenda with the International Accounting Standards Board to converge U.S. and international financial reporting standards. Ms. Seidman represented the U.S. in the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters and was an Observer to the International Integrated Reporting Council.

Ms. Seidman earned an M.S. in accounting from New York University Stern School of Business and a B.A. in English from Colgate University.  She is certified in cybersecurity oversight by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and was recently certified in ESG Oversight by Competent Boards (GCB.D).