ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov 03, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Merrill Corporation, a leading global provider of technology-enabled services for the financial, health care, real estate, legal and other corporate markets, today announced that Lou Rohman, Merrill's director of XBRL operations, has been appointed to serve on the XBRL Taxonomy Working Group ("TWG"). XBRL US formed the new advisory group TWG and established it in October 2008. US. The advisory group will help XBRL US manage the evolution of the U.S. GAAP Taxonomies, and evaluate and advise on change requests submitted by individuals commenting on the U.S. GAAP Taxonomies.

XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is the global open standard to prepare, publish, exchange and analyze business reports and statements in a consistent, accurate and machine-readable format. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed rules to require all public U.S. companies (and foreign companies that follow U.S. GAAP rules) to file financial statements, footnotes and schedules in XBRL format. For more information about the XBRL guidelines and phase-in schedule, visit .

"The Taxonomy Working Group will serve a key advisory role in the support and maintenance of the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies," said Campbell Pryde, chief standards officer, XBRL US, "We're pleased that Lou Rohman and Merrill Corporation, as members, can lend their expertise to the process of ensuring strong, viable taxonomies going forward."

Rohman, a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Management Accountant, brings 25 years of financial and technical expertise to the Taxonomy Working Group. As director of XBRL operations at Merrill Corporation, he led the initiative to provide comprehensive XBRL services to client companies. He is an active participant on the XBRL US GAAP taxonomy project team. Most recently, he led an initiative to produce examples of detailed footnote tagging using the U.S. GAAP Taxonomy, and also assisted with the review of the U.S. GAAP taxonomy prior to its release in April 2008.

"Merrill understands the importance of finance executives being able to discuss XBRL decisions with peers, avoiding the disconnects that can occur in 'accountant to programmer' discussions. Lou has built and now leads a truly expert team of tenured CPAs and CMAs with a wealth of knowledge and experience in preparing XBRL documents," said Mike Schlanger, vice president of strategy and business development for Merrill, "We are honored that XBRL US has recognized Lou's expertise by appointing him to this strategic working group."

According to XBRL US, the Taxonomy Working Group members include:

Landon Westerlund              KPMG

Lisa Nelson                        Microsoft Corporation

Lou Rohman                       Merrill Corporation

Patricia (Tricia) LaValle        Ernst and Young

Glenn Doggett                     CFA Institute

Simon Hecht                      United Technology