Paul Bijou ’73 Endowed Scholarship

Paul Bijou graduated from Iona in 1973 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting. In addition to several academic and social clubs, Paul was a 3 year member of the Iona College baseball team. After graduation, Paul entered the world of accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant. He joined the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand (Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse and became known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC) and was admitted to the partnership in 1985. Paul specialized in banking, automotive and manufacturing industries during his career and was part of the naissance services of Internal Control.

After 26 years at PWC, Paul retired from the firm and began a search for his second career. He found it in a newly form organization called the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The PCAOB was created as part of the legislation called The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Paul, an early hire by the Inspections Division of the PCAOB, was instrumental in the creation of the inspection plan for the PCAOB. He served as deputy director of Inspection division, leader of northeast region of inspection division and was the worldwide inspection leader for 3 of the 4 Big 4 firms during his tenure. After serving 15 years, Paul retired from the PCAOB.

Paul also served on the national board of INROADS, an organization that identified talented minority students and linked those students with corporate America.

In 2004, Paul established the Paul Bijou ’73 Endowed Scholarship to assists students who have demonstrated leadership and academic excellence as well as personal commitment to the needs of the Iona community.