Since he took over as chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board in July 2002, Bob Herz has spent every workweek in Norwalk, Connecticut, where FASB is based, away from his family in northern New Jersey. If he gets his way, he'll be doing the same thing for six more years.

Herz, 51, is approaching the home stretch of his five-year term and says he wants to come back for an additional one if the 11 trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees FASB, will reappoint him. Meantime, he is determined to continue implementing a controversial agenda. Herz has moved to institute a more international, principles-based approach to financial reporting, rather than the rules-based regime that has traditionally held sway in the U.S. -- and allowed some companies to produce misleading books while appearing to follow the letter of the law. Herz's initiative has pleased analysts and investors. But some new FASB standards, such as those requiring companies to expense stock options and address inconsistencies in pension accounting, are grating on corporations. Some investors worry that Herz eventually will go easier on companies, as other FASB chiefs have.

"Companies will always bully FASB, and FASB will always compromise," says one investor who sits on a FASB advisory council. "I don't think any chairman is capable of standing up to them."

Herz, however, is determined to keep the faith. "I've come this far," says the former PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor. "I'm going to see it through."