Partner at Confidor, Chair of IFAC's SMP Advisory Group

Monica Foerster became Chair of the IFAC SMP Advisory Group (SMPAG) in 2017, after serving as its Deputy Chair. A SMPAG member since 2014, she was nominated by Conselho Federal de Contabilidade (CFC) and Instituto dos Auditores Independentes do Brasil (IBRACON). With 20 years of experience in the accountancy profession, Ms. Foerster is a partner at Confidor, an accounting, tax, and law firm with offices in Porto Alegre and São Paulo, Brazil.

Monica is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Ibracon Brazil (where she was the SMP Director and coordinator of the SMP Working Group for 6 years), and a board member at the Accounting Council (where she was also the coordinator of the Committee of Audit Studies (CRCRS) for 4 years. 

Monica holds an MBA in financial management, controllership and audit from the FGV – Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brazil, and a degree in accounting from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, Brazil. 

Developed in conjunction with CPA Canada, this guide aims to help professional accountants in practice, especially those operating in small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs), in conducting review engagements in compliance with International Standard on Review Engagements (ISRE) 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements. 

This guidance was written for all organizations, regardless of their size or structure, private or public, to support the accountancy profession’s facilitation of sustainable organizations, financial markets, and economies by providing guiding principles to manage the complexities of performing a robust project and investment appraisal. Greater rigor in the appraisal and decision process can be achieved by using the principles as a benchmark against which to assess an organization’s current practice.

A strong and well-governed professional accountancy organization (PAO) produces and sustains a strong accountancy profession that is able to serve the public interest and contribute to economic stability and growth. A successful PAO gains much of its strength from the sense of identity, benefits, and rights that members derive from membership; and from the contributions that individual members and firms make to the PAO in recognition of its public interest perspective.

This third edition of the guide features enhancements to the two sample manuals, as well as other refinements for clarity and consistency with International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC) 1. The guide contains the requirements set out in ISQC 1 in addition to implementation guidance, including discussion material and an integrated case study that can be used as the basis for education and training.

David Simpson is Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC), an IFAC Network Partner. He previously served as the president of ICAC from 2021 to 2023 and has a long-standing relationship with the organization. Simpson is committed to fostering collaboration among ICAC members to achieve their goals, including developing a robust strategic plan to address immediate challenges and position the organization as a thought leader in the accounting field.

Azlina Bulmer recently joined ICAEW as International Director and part of ICAEW Leadership Team. Ms. Bulmer has overall responsibility for ICAEW’s international offices and operations to ensure that ICAEW continues to provide a high-quality service to members, students and stakeholders across the globe.

Most recently, Ms. Bulmer was Managing Director and a member of the Board of Directors at the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), the professional body for the automotive sector. During her 12 months leading IMI, she returned the Institute to profit. Previously, Ms. Bulmer held the position of Executive Director of Membership & Engagement at the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) with responsibility for CII’s membership activities and engagement programmes in the UK and internationally.

Prior to the CII, Ms. Bulmer was the Director of International at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), where she established the RIBA’s first international directorate in 2019 and led on the expansion of the RIBA’s operations and profiling in target markets in Middle East and China.  Ms. Bulmer originally joined the RIBA in January 2016 as Head of Operations, Nations & Regions, managing the operations of the RIBA’s 10 UK regions.

Ms. Bulmer’s early career included public sector work in economic and community development, which was followed by seven years working at a social investment bank.  She is currently an associate non-executive director on the Board at Harrogate District NHS Foundation Trust and has held several non-executive director roles previously including Chair of Finance & Estate Committee at University College of Osteopathy and Chair of The Works UK.

Simon Sfeir is an external auditor who graduated with an accounting degree from Notre Dame University in 2002 and holds a CPA from the State of California since 2005. He had a five year experience at Ernst & Young Beirut and has been a partner at Sfeir & Associates since 2009. Simon has mainly an audit experience in banking, insurance, retail and services industries as well as not-for-profit organizations.

Simon was instructor for external and internal audit classes (English and French) at the Lebanese University (2008-2023) in addition to CPA at Morgan International (2008-2012), IFRS Diploma and ISA classes at the Lebanese Association of Certified Public Accountants (LACPA) (2014-2023). He delivered and contributed in several trainings in audit, accounting and finance in Lebanon and the region.

Simon was also a member of the technical committee at the LACPA, who issued the quality control and the peer review guides as well as the audit file manual for external auditors.

In 2023, Simon was appointed as a member of the Exams Committee at LACPA and was elected Board Member in June 2024. He was then named by the LACPA Board as technical advisor for the International Panel on Accountancy Education (IPAE).