Where did you grow up and what was your first sign that you were headed for a life in accounting?

I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, a small university town. I'm not sure what attracted me to accounting. When I was 15 I picked up my older brother's accounting textbook from a course he was taking at Indiana University. I thought it was really fascinating but I've no idea why; he seemed to hate the subject. The next summer between my Junior and Senior years in high school, I took Accounting 201 at Indiana University and loved the subject and the instructor. (Moral: Learning is easy if you like the subject and the instructor.)

What degrees have you earned and where did you attend school?

B.S. in Business (Major: Accounting) from Indiana University (1981)
Ph.D. in Business Administration (Major: Accounting; Minor: Statistics and econometrics) from Michigan State University (1999)

What area of accountancy is your specialty and where have you worked prior to or during your teaching career?

I spent about half my 14 year professional career as an auditor and the other half as an analyst/consultant. During my early years as an analyst quantitative spreadsheet software became available (e.g., Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Microsoft Excel) and I started building financial simulation models since I had experience in both accounting and financial analysis. These models are used in making all kinds of business decisions, so this is how I got into consulting. The financial models I built were mainly used for two types of consulting services often called decision-support services and business valuation services.

What courses will you be teaching over the summer and/or the coming school year?

I'll be teaching ACTG 316 and ACTG 503, both of which are Intermediate Financial Accounting II. These basically cover the liabilities and equity side of the balance sheet. The courses are interesting and perhaps a bit difficult since they combine accounting concepts with concepts from finance, mainly present value and statistical concepts.

How would you describe your teaching style?

Hmmm ... Low tech, non-interactive, traditional lecture? Combining concepts and applied problem solving? I'm not exactly sure. But I do know how I write lecture notes I use in class: I take very basic accounting concepts, show how accounting standards derive from these concepts, and then (try to) show concise ways of thinking about the concepts and standards. Finally I (try to) show how these concepts lead directly to effective ways of framing and solving accounting problems.

Please name the main skill(s) or concept(s) you hope your students gain from attending your classes.

I try to help my students develop a deep understanding of fundamental concepts underlying financial accounting: economic substance over legal form, historical exchange price, conservatism, present value, and uncertainty. I also try to help my students develop analytical, problem-solving, and financial modeling skills. These skills can come directly from studying how to frame and solve accounting problems.

What personal or academic qualities do you think are most integral to a successful career in the accounting field?

As for personal characteristics I think it's most important to be open-minded about ideas and people, persistent, inquisitive, and reasonable. This is probably true for life in general, and for academic success in particular. In addition to these personal characteristics, I have a bias about academic qualities for accountants. Let me explain: Accounting supplies information to decision models, and these decision models relate directly to other business disciplines (e.g., finance, management strategy, organizational behavior, marketing, etc.). Understanding these decision models is important to accountants since they need to know how accounting information is and is not used. So the point is this: Accounting students need to understand the *basic* ideas from all business disciplines, and to understand how they fit together in business/economic decision-making. I think the easiest way to do this is to develop the mental habit of asking: "How do the basic ideas I'm learning in accounting relate to what I've learned in other business and economics courses?" (It also helps to build and play around with financial simulation models!)

Why did you decide to enter the teaching profession? What do you enjoy most about being a teacher at UIC?

I found that I was more interested in studying theoretical aspects of accounting and how it relates to other disciplines than I was in providing consulting services and running a consulting practice. So an academic career is perfect since I get paid to do exactly what I enjoy: Study (i.e., do research and publish academic papers) and teach people about the theoretical and practical aspects of accounting.

What I enjoy most about teaching is that students are more open-minded and interested in the theoretical aspects of accounting than many professionals I new while in professional practice. I've been quite surprised at how genuinely interested students are about the accounting research projects I'm working on. Incidentally, I find UIC students noticeably more open-minded and interested in these things than accounting students at other schools where I've taught.

Anything else you might want to add...?

I really had never heard of UIC when I came three years ago. Now that I have gotten to know the students and faculty in UIC's College of Business Administration, I have difficulty expressing how impressed I am with the academic and intellectual capabilities--and personal qualities--of both students and faculty here. Although I don't much enjoy large cities, I can't think of a better overall place than UIC for someone interested in teaching and researching in accounting.