PR Newswire executive Michelle Savage was appointed today to two leadership positions within the U.S. arm of XBRL International, a consortium of more than 300 companies working to adopt a new global standard of financial reporting.
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Savage, vice president of Investor Relations Services for PR Newswire, was named Vice-Chairperson of the XBRL-U.S. Steering Committee and Chairperson XBRL-U.S. Adoption Working Group, replacing PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant Walter Hamscher, who is currently vice chairperson, XBRL International.
"The entire PR Newswire organization congratulates Michelle for her appointment to these important and prestigious posts," said Dave Armon, chief operating officer for PR Newswire. "We have always valued Michelle for her deep knowledge of financial reporting, disclosure and the regulatory environment, so she is a natural choice to help in the adoption of XBRL."
As vice chairperson of the steering committee, Savage, together with the newly named chairperson, Daniel Roberts, national director of Assurance Innovation for Grant Thornton LLP, and the newly elected XBRL-U.S. steering committee, will be responsible for guiding XBRL-U.S. toward the fulfillment of its objectives. These objectives include increasing market adoption, achieving widespread development, adoption and maintenance of a robust set of taxonomies and XBRL-enabled tools, and driving extensive market awareness and knowledge of XBRL. As chairperson of the XBRL-U.S. Adoption Working Group, Savage will focus the participating members on efforts to build awareness of XBRL as a technology that enables better communication in both internal and external reporting of financial information.
"The momentum behind XBRL is clearly building. The SEC's voluntary filing program, combined with growing interest from the financial and investment communities, have brought to light the innumerable benefits of XBRL as a reporting and data sharing tool," remarked Michelle Savage. "However, there is still much work to be done if the promise of XBRL is to become a business reality. As chairperson of the XBRL-U.S. Adoption Working Group, my mission will be to facilitate the adoption of external and internal reporting in XBRL, continue building awareness among regulators, the analyst community, public companies, software vendors and the government sector, and actively engage outside organizations that can help influence the adoption of XBRL."
XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is an XML-based standard that permits the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial and business information across all software formats and technologies. It reduces the need to enter financial information more than one time, minimizes the risk of data entry error and eliminates the need to manually key information.
In her role at PR Newswire, Savage oversees the development of partnerships and services to help publicly traded companies communicate their key messages and information to shareholders and potential investors. She is a principal liaison on behalf of PR Newswire with organizations such as the Securities & Exchange Commission, XBRL-U.S., the Enhanced Business Reporting Consortium, and the National Institute of Investor Relations (NIRI), among others. Savage has published articles on XBRL in leading Investor Relations publications including IR magazine and NIRI's IR Update and is a frequently quoted expert on the topic.
Savage added, "PR Newswire has been helping corporations deliver time sensitive information to meet material news disclosure and make their information transparent to all stakeholders since 1954. XBRL will benefit the business and financial communities even further by making that same information, contained in an earnings release, even easier to import into a spreadsheet-based model and analyze by saving time and reducing the potential that errors could be introduced through rekeying."
PR Newswire joined XBRL-US in 2002 and quickly assumed a leadership position on the Adoption Committee with the appointment of executive Michelle Horowitz to Chairperson. Since that time, PR Newswire's participation has been instrumental in the progress of the consortium. In January, PR Newswire launched its own XBRL-document creation tool through a partnership with Rivet Software, an innovator in developing easy-to-use XBRL enabling applications, to provide investor relations professionals with a way to create and distribute their financial information in XBRL.
About PR Newswire
Now in its 51st year, PR Newswire Association LLC (www.prnewswire.com) provides electronic distribution, targeting, measurement, translation and broadcast services on behalf of some 40,000 corporate, government, association, labor, non-profit, and other customers worldwide. Using PR Newswire, these organizations reach a variety of critical audiences including the news media, the investment community, government decision- makers, and the general public with their up-to-the-minute, full-text news developments.
Established in 1954, PR Newswire has offices in 11 countries and routinely sends its customers' news to outlets in 135 countries and in 30 languages. Utilizing the latest in communications technology, PR Newswire content is considered a mainstay among news reporters, investors and individuals who seek breaking news from the source. PR Newswire's leading services include ProfNet Experts(SM), eWatch™, MEDIAtlas™, NewsPrompt™, Search Engine Visibility (SEV), MediaRoom, MediaSense™ and MultiVu™. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media plc of London.
Contact: Rachel (Asche) Meranus
Director of Public Relations
PR Newswire
212.282.1929
rachel.meranus@prnewswire.com
Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link. Michelle Savage http://profnet.prnewswire.com/ud_public.jsp?userid=70672 David B. Armon http://profnet.prnewswire.com/ud_public.jsp?userid=345162
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CONTACT: Rachel (Asche) Meranus, Director of Public Relations,
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