Faculty
Leventhal School of Accounting
Full-time
Jack Barcal
Building
ACC
Room / Office
207
Associate Professor of Accounting
JD, Stanford University; BS, DePaul University
Jack Barcal is an expert in taxation, estate planning, probate, trusts, estates and wills, and tax law. He has published in The Journal of Taxation and Estate Planning among other journals. Professor Barcal is a past recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award at the Leventhal School of Accounting. He has served as chairman of Death & Gift Tax Section and the Inheritance Tax Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and has consulted for a variety of entities, families and individuals, including acting as special tax, estate & trust counsel for a trustee of a multi-billion dollar trust/estate.
Randolph Beatty
Building
ACC
Room / Office
124
Professor of Accounting
PhD, MAS, BS, University of Illinois
Professor Beatty's scholarship spans accounting, finance, and management, with articles published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Law & Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Strategic Management Journal. He has won or been nominated for teaching awards at USC Marshall School of Business, Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, the Wharton School, and the University of Illinois. In 1994, Business Week selected him as one of twelve Masters of the Classroom. Beatty has consulted for a variety of organizations providing expert witness testimony on bankruptcy prediction, valuation, and financial accounting issues. Beatty serves on the Advisory Board for the USC Caruso Catholic Center and the City of Hope Board. He is also the Chair of the City of Hope Medical Center Board.
Sarah Bonner
Building
ACC
Room / Office
118
Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Michigan; MA, George Washington University; BS, Wake Forest University
Sarah Bonner is a leader in the study of judgment and decision making. Her book, Judgment and Decision Making in Accounting (2008) develops a framework that synthesizes research in psychology and economics. She has published in the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, and Accounting, Organizations and Society. She serves on the editorial board of Contemporary Accounting Research, and previously served on the board of The Accounting Review. Professor Bonner has received two National Science Foundation grants, the American Accounting Association's Outstanding Dissertation Award, the USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and the Evan C. Thompson Faculty Mentoring and Leadership Award.
Ruben Davila
Building
ACC
Room / Office
126
Professor of Clinical Accounting
JD, BS, Loyola Marymount University; MBA, University of Southern California
Ruben Davila is an expert on financial accounting and reporting, management control issues, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. He is a forensic accountant who has served as a consultant and expert witness in a variety of complex business litigation matters including: fraudulent financial reporting, embezzlement, economic damages, solvency, business valuation, and corporate governance. Professor Davila served on the California Board of Accountancy from 2003 to 2007. He has been highly involved with professional activites including the AICPA Board of Examiners, NASBA's Global Strategies Committee, NASBA's International Qualifications Board including Task Force Leader for the MRA review of the Chinese Institute of CPAs.
Patricia Dechow
Building
ACCT
Room / Office
117
Robert R. Dockson Professor of Business Administration & Professor of Accounting
Ph.D. Accounting and Finance 1993, W. E. Simon School of Business Administration, University of Rochester (supervised by Professor Ross Watts);<br>M.S. Business Administration 1990, W. E. Simon School of Business Administration, University of Rochester;<br>Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honors) 1986, University of Western Australia (supervised by Professor Philip Brown).
Professor Dechow's research focuses on accounting accruals, the quality and reliability of earnings, the use of earnings information in predicting stock returns, and the effect of analysts' forecasts on investors’ perceptions of firm value.
Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release Dataset: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/aaerdataset/home
Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release Dataset: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/aaerdataset/home
Mark DeFond
Building
HOH
Room / Office
816
A. N. Mosich Chair in Accounting and Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Washington; BA, San Francisco State University
Professor DeFond is the A. N. Mosich Chair of Accounting, Leventhal School of Accounting, University of Southern California. His research investigates issues in auditing, international financial reporting, and earnings management. He is a former Senior Editor of The Accounting Review and has served on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals, including the Journal of Accounting Research and the Journal of Accounting and Economics. He is a recipient of the AAA’s Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award, and a four-time MBA Golden Apple teaching award winner. Professor DeFond has held visiting professorships in Hong Kong and Singapore, and is currently the Associate Dean of Faculty at the Leventhal School of Accounting. He received his PhD at the University of Washington and prior to that worked for several years as an auditor with Deloitte (formerly Touche Ross) and is a California CPA (inactive).
Chrislynn Freed
Building
ACC
Room / Office
115
Professor of Clinical Accounting
MBA, University of Southern California; BSA, University of Florida
Chrislynn Freed's interests include financial accounting and auditing. Professor Freed received the CalCPA Outstanding Accounting Educator Award in 2013, Golden Apple Award in 2010, 2012 and 2014, USC Mellon Award for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in 2009 and 2008, and USC Parents Association Teaching and Mentoring Award in 2008. Professor Freed's activities include currently serving as President of the CalCPA Education Foundation, serving on three committees for CalCPA, member of USC's Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures and the Advisory board of Florida's Fisher School of Accounting. Prior to joining USC she was a senior manager in an international CPA firm.
Shane Heitzman
Building
HOH
Room / Office
822
Associate Professor of Accounting
Ph.D., University of Arizona; M.Acc., University of Arizona; B.S., Business Economics, Eastern Oregon University
Shane Heitzman specializes in the economic consequences of corporate and individual taxation, mergers and acquisitions, and information quality in capital markets. His research is published in top accounting and finance journals and he serves an associate editor for the Journal of Accounting and Economics and The Accounting Review. Prior to joining USC, Professor Heitzman was on the faculty at the University of Rochester.
William Holder
Building
ACC
Room / Office
101A
Dean of the Leventhal School of Accounting, Alan Casden Dean's Chair, & Professor of Accounting
DBA, MAcc, University of Oklahoma; BS, Oklahoma State University
William Holder is an expert on financial accounting and reporting, and auditing. His research has been published in The Journal of Accountancy, The Accounting Review, the Financial Executive, and The CPA Journal. He is a recipient of the Gold Medal Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award. Professor Holder served as a member of the American Institute of CPAs and chaired its audit committee.
Merle Hopkins
Building
ACC
Room / Office
B4A
Professor of Clinical Accounting
PhD, Michigan State University; MS, BA, Western Michigan University
Merle Hopkins conducts research on support for the hypothesized importance of expected cash flows to firms, and has published in The Corporation Law Review. Professor Hopkins served as Assistant Dean in the Leventhal School of Accounting, and is actively and extensively involved with several on-going programs conducted by the USC Office of Executive Development. Former clients include Amgen, Security Pacific Bank, Union Bank among others. He has consulted for a variety of organizations, including the Security Pacific National Bank and Union Bank in Los Angeles.
Cecil Jackson
Building
ACC
Room / Office
110
Professor of Clinical Accounting
D .Commmerce, University of South Africa; M. Commerce, Rhodes University; B.Commerce, University of the Witwatersrand
Professor Jackson developed and introduced the Leventhal School of Accounting’s first courses in Detecting Fraudulent Financial Reporting for both the undergraduate Accounting program and the Master of Accounting program. His textbook, Detecting Accounting Fraud: Analysis and Ethics (2015), was published by Pearson/Prentice Hall. (It is available in both hardcopy and electronic format.) His recent coauthored article, “ASU 2016-15 and GAAP Treatment of Securitization-Related Cash Flows,” was published in The CPA Journal, January 2020.
He has been interviewed on CNN, Bloomberg News, The Street.com and other television news shows, and is the winner of numerous teaching awards.
He has been interviewed on CNN, Bloomberg News, The Street.com and other television news shows, and is the winner of numerous teaching awards.
Kristen Jaconi
Associate Professor of the Practice in Accounting
B.A., Pomona College; M.A., University of California, Irvine; J.D., Stanford Law School
Robert Kiddoo
Building
ACC
Room / Office
114
Associate Professor of Clinical Accounting
MBA, BS, CSU Northridge
Bob Kiddoo is an expert in the selection, implementation and support of enterprise systems. He has 20 years of experience implementing ERP based systems in a variety of industries, and teaches advanced courses in the Accounting Information Systems program covering systems strategy, project planning, project management, systems analysis and design, and systems implementation. He also serves as Executive Director of University Advancement Gift Accounting, where he leads the team that implemented and maintains the University's PeopleSoft based Constituent Relationship System (CRS).
Greg Kling
Building
ACC
Room / Office
232B
Lecturer of Accounting
MST, Golden Gate University; BS, University of California at Berkeley
Greg was a partner at Kling & Pathak LLP prior to its acquisition by a Big 4 accounting firm. During his career in public accounting, Greg provided tax planning, tax compliance, and business consulting services to clients. Greg is a full-time lecturer who specializes in individual, corporate, and real estate taxation issues. He is also the update author for the LexisNexis treatise, Federal Taxes Affecting Real Estate. Greg earned his B.S. in business administration (accounting) from University of California, Berkeley and his M.S. in taxation from Golden Gate University.
Rose Layton
Building
ACC
Room / Office
112
Professor of Clinical Accounting
MAcc, BS, DePaul University
Rose Layton is an expert in auditing and assurance and financial accounting, particularly in the areas of auditor liability and financial statement fraud. She is a Searle Fellow and a recipient of the Margaret Keldie Award from the American Society of Woman Accountants.
Clive Lennox
Building
HOH
Room / Office
802
USC Accounting Associates Professor of Accounting
Ph. D University of Oxford, 1998, Economics.
M. Phil. University of Oxford, 1995, Economics.
B. Sc. University of Warwick, 1991, Economics.
Clive joined the Leventhal School of Accounting in 2015. His research interests are in auditing, disclosure, fraud, bankruptcy, and empirical methods. He has published more than twenty articles in the top-tier accounting journals (Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and the Review of Accounting Studies). His research and teaching has received numerous prizes including the Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award from the American Accounting Association in 2016. Clive is an editor at The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research, and he is a member of the editorial board at the Journal of Accounting Research.
Tracie Majors
Building
ACC
Room / Office
119
Assistant Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Texas Austin; MS, BA, Wake Forest University
Tracie’s research focuses on auditing and financial reporting issues, and she draws upon theory from psychology and economics to conduct experiments examining these issues. Her particular areas of interest are factors influencing auditor judgment effectiveness, impacts of regulation, and effects of individual attributes on decision-making. She earned her doctorate at University of Texas at Austin, and served on the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign prior to joining USC’s faculty. Prior to her doctorate, she worked in auditing and transaction services at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Shirley Maxey
Building
ACC
Room / Office
101C
Professor of Clinical Accounting
University of California, Davis
Shirley Maxey serves as Assistant Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Marshall School of Business, and she is Associate Dean for the Master of Accounting and Business Taxation programs in the Leventhal School of Accounting. She specializes in accounting communication and professional development and served seven years as Chair of the Dept. of Business Communication. Before joining USC, Professor Maxey worked for the California Legislature's Auditor General and with Coopers & Lybrand. Professor Maxey is the recipient of the Instructor Excellence Award, the Faculty Excellence Award, Marshall's Master Teacher Award, the Dean's Award for Community, and the Marshall Award for Innovation in Teaching. She is a member of the American Accounting Association's Accounting Program Leaders Group and is active in the Federation of Schools of Accountancy. She represents Marshall and Leventhal as Academic Coordinator for the AACSB Bridge Program for Instructional Practitioners.
Patricia Mills
Building
BRI
Room / Office
101
Vice Dean for Teaching and Innovation & Professor of Clinical Accounting
LLM, University of San Diego; JD, BS, Syracuse University
Patricia Mills specializes in partnership, real estate, and individual tax issues, she has contributed to the treatises Powell on Real Property and California Real Estate Law and Practice, and has published articles in the California Real Estate Journal, The Journal of Real Estate Taxation, and the Tax Lawyer. Prior to joining USC Marshall, she spent 20 years in private practice. She has served on the Research Institute of America's Customer Support Advisory Board. Professor Mills is a frequent speaker on tax topics, including at NYU's Federal Tax Institute and USC's Institute on Federal Taxation.
Daniel O'Leary
Building
ACC
Room / Office
208
Chair of the Faculty Council and Professor of Accounting
PhD, Case Western Reserve University; MBA, University of Michigan; BS, Bowling Green University
Dan O'Leary has published articles in Management Science, Decision Sciences, IEEE Intelligent Systems, IEEE Computer, International Journal of Human and Computer Studies, Communications of the ACM, and Decision Support Systems. He served as editor of IEEE Intelligent Systems and the International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, and on the editorial board of Enterprise Information Systems, Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Information Technology and Management, and Journal of Information Systems. Prior to completing his PhD, he worked in consulting for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co.
Maria Ogneva
Building
HOH
Room / Office
819
Associate Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Southern California; MS, BS, Moscow State University
Maria Ogneva is an Associate Professor at the Leventhal School of Accounting, Marshall School of Business. Before joining University of Southern California, she served as an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Maria received her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics from Moscow State University and a PhD in Accounting from University of Southern California.
Maria’s research focuses on accounting-based risk assessment, accounting information and market efficiency, accounting-based equity valuation, and, more recently, on the link between accounting information and macroeconomy. Her work has been published in the top accounting and finance journals, including Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Finance, and Journal of Accounting Research. She currently serves as an Associate Editor at Management Science and Journal of Accounting Research. She is a member of editorial boards at The Accounting Review and Journal of Financial Reporting.
John Owens
Building
ACC
Room / Office
108
Professor of the Practice, Accounting
BS, USC
John has taught at USC for 13 years and was an Audit partner with KPMG for 27 years (38 in total with the Firm). He teaches business and financial analysis and management classes and leads USC's master of accounting with data & analytics program. At KPMG, he provided audit and supply chain strategy services to clients in consumer and industrial products, energy, medtech and others. He led audits of a Fortune 300 metals company, a $25 billion consumer products company (under IFRS), and the fourth largest oil and gas company in the United States. John headed the Firm’s campus recruiting in the Western United States. He graduated from USC majoring in accounting.
Smrity Randhawa
Building
ACC
Room / Office
210
Associate Professor of Clinical Accounting
Ph.D., Stanford; B.S., University of Michigan
Smrity Randhawa is an Accounting scholar whose area of expertise spans financial accounting, managerial accounting, valuation, disclosure and corporate governance. Smrity holds a PhD in Business from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. In her research, she has studied the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on small public companies. At Marshall School of Business she has taught classes ranging from Introductory Accounting for undergraduate students to Financial Statement Analysis for graduate students. In addition to her faculty duties, she also provides consulting services related to: bankruptcy analysis; fair value accounting measurements and valuations; and provides opinions on the analysis of other experts.
Francisco Roman
Professor of Clinical Accounting
Francisco J. Román specializes on managerial accounting. His research interests lie in understanding how monetray incentives for groups influences labor productivity and job perfromance, the implications of offshoring arrangements on firms' production costs, and corporate governance in emerging capital markets. His research has been published at Accounting, Organizations, and Society, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Management Accounting Research. Prior to joining academia, Professor Román worked for General Instruments and Becton Dickinson at manufacturing plants in México and the U.S. Prior to USC he held academic appoinntments at Rice University, Texas Tech and George Mason University.
Thomas Ryan
Building
ACC
Room / Office
113
Professor of the Practice of Accounting
MBA, DePaul University; BS, University of Illinois - Chicago
Thomas Ryan is an expert on valuation for financial statement and federal tax purposes. He retired from the PricewaterhouseCoopers partnership in 2010. As PwC's national tax valuation leader from 2002 to 2006, he guided growth of the practice to ten cities. He also served as managing director at KPMG and was a partner at Arthur Young. He has over 35 years of experience valuing the business enterprise, intangible assets, real property, and manufacturing assets. He is a member of the Advisory Council to the USC Leventhal SEC and Financial Reporting Institute Conference. Past Chair of the Business Valuation Resource Panel of The Appraisal Foundation.
Matthew Shaffer
Building
ACC
Room / Office
114
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Matthew Shaffer is a first-year assistant professor at the USC Marshall School of Business. He received his doctoral degree from Harvard Business School and his bachelor’s degree from Yale. His research centers on corporate governance, valuation, and the market for corporate control. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, and presented at leading conferences in accounting, finance, and law. This year, he is teaching the core undergraduate introductory accounting course, BUAD 280.
Richard Sloan
Building
ACCT
Room / Office
125
Deloitte and Touche LLP Chair in Accounting, Professor of Accounting, Finance and Business Economics
PhD, Business Administration (Accounting and Finance), University of Rochester; MS, Business Administration, University of Rochester; Bachelor of Commerce University of Western Australia
Richard Sloan is a professor of accounting, finance and business economics at the University of Southern California. He has also served on the faculties of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. While at the University of Michigan, Professor Sloan was the founding director of the John R. and Georgene M. Tozzi Electronic Business and Finance Center. From 2006 to 2009, Sloan was a managing director in equity research at Barclays Global Investors. Professor Sloan’s research focuses on the role of accounting information in investment decisions.
Lori Smith
Building
ACC
Room / Office
121A
Associate Professor of Clinical Accounting
B.S., University of Southern California <br>
Prior to joining the faculty of the Leventhal School in 2011, she spent two decades with Deloitte, and served as the Director of Accounting for Bergen Brunswig Corporation. Additionally, Lori has served as the Executive Director of the Forum for Corporate Directors and was actively involved for 10 years on the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society. Lori served with distinction as the Director of the SEC and Financial Reporting Institute at Leventhal. Another important role that Lori plays in the Leventhal School is that of Assistant Dean of Academic Administration.
Mark Soliman
Building
HOH
Room / Office
813
Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Michigan; MS, Seattle University; BS, California State Polytechnic University
Mark Soliman specializes in financial reporting information, trading strategies, capital markets, debt ratings voluntarily disclosure, especially non-GAAP earnings. He has held positions at The Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Foster School at the University of Washington where he was the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Outside of academia, he was vice president of accounting-based research at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago and consulted extensively for Renaissance Technologies, helping them to develop trading strategies for their hedge fund. Professor Soliman has published extensively in the top journals including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, The Review of Accounting Studies, Management Science and Contemporary Accounting Research. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature in 2009 along with the Best Paper award at several conferences. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review and The Review of Accounting Studies. Professor Soliman is also a CPA in the state of California and Washington (inactive). He is also a triathlete recently completing the Ironman distance in Coeur D’Alene in Idaho.
Lorien Stice-Lawrence
Building
ACCT
Room / Office
308B
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Ph.D., Accounting, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017<br>B.S., Economics, Brigham Young University (summa cum laude), 2011<br>Minors: Business Administration, French, Arabic
Lorien received a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of North Carolina and a B.S. in Economics from Brigham Young University. She conducts research which examines written communication of financial information through corporate filings and disclosures using linguistics-based research methodologies, as well as research on the intersection of accounting and emerging technologies more broadly. Lorien has presented her research at many conferences in her field and has published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics and Management Science. Her work has been cited in CFO Magazine as well as the Wall Street Journal.
K.R. Subramanyam
Building
HOH
Room / Office
821
KPMG Foundation Professor of Accounting, Associate Dean of Marshall PhD Program
PhD, University of Wisconsin; MBA, Indian Institute of Management - Ahmadabad; BCom, Madras University
K.R. Subramanyam is a prolific and highly cited researcher in financial accounting and auditing who is on the editorial boards of several leading journals. His research has been widely reported in the national and international media and also cited in congressional hearings. He is the recipient of several research awards including the Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature. Professor Subramanyam teaches financial statement analysis in the MBA program and is an author of a popular text book on the topic. Professor Subramanyam has been actively involved with doctoral students and has placed his students at Stanford and Columbia.
Charles Swenson
Building
ACC
Room / Office
107
Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Southern California; MS, Arizona State University; BS, University of Arizona
Charles Swenson conducts economics-based research on state and local taxation, location-based credits and incentives, and enterprise zones. He has published articles in the Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Public Economics, National Tax Journal, and The Accounting Review. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and the Asia Pacific Journal of Taxation, and previously served on the editorial board of The Accounting Review. Professor Swenson is a three-time recipient of the Tax Manuscript Award from the American Taxation Association, and received the Most Popular Teacher Award at the Leventhal School of Accounting.
David Tsui
Building
ACC
Room / Office
106
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; BBA, University of Wisconsin- Madison
David Tsui’s research interests revolve around corporate governance, with a particular focus on the design of executive compensation contracts and how these and other incentive mechanisms affect managers’ investment and reporting choices. Much of his research also emphasizes the role of uncertainty in decision-making and incentive design. Professor Tsui received his PhD in Accounting from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and previously worked as an equity analyst covering the automotive industry at Robert W. Baird.
Shiing-Wu Wang
Building
ACC
Room / Office
308C
Associate Professor of Accounting
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Business Administration, 1988
M.B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Accounting, 1980
B.S., National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan, Engineering, 1978
Professor Wang is involved in several international programs at the Marshall School of Business including Global Leadership Program, Pacific Rim Education Program (PRIME), and EMBA training program for major Chinese Universities. A native of Taiwan, his research and teaching interest includes financial accounting, tax and valuation issues in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and taxes and business strategy. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, and the Journal of the American Taxation Association.
Zivia Wilson Sweeney
Building
ACC
Room / Office
109
AssociateProfessor of Clinical Accounting
MBA, BS, University of Southern California
Zivia Sweeney is an expert in strategic planning and budgeting, mergers and acquisitions, and accounting and finance operations for manufacturing, healthcare, service, and nonprofit organizations. She has served in senior management roles in public corporate and nonprofit arenas, and has held the of Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance, and Corporate Controller. Professor Sweeney is a PriceWaterhouseCoopers alumnus. She has served for a number of years as a member of the USC Leventhal School’s Accounting Advisory Board.
Regina Wittenberg Moerman
Building
HOH
Room / Office
815
Professor of Accounting & Accounting Circle Professor of Business Administration
Ph.D., The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 2006.<br>MBA, The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 2006.<br>MBA, Finance and Accounting, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Summa Cum Laude, 1999.<br>B.A., Accounting and Economics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Magna Cum Laude, 1996.
Regina Wittenberg-Moerman specializes in debt contracting and trading, banking, reporting quality, and disclosure. She has held positions at the Wharton School and the Chicago Booth. Wittenberg-Moerman is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Best Paper Prize by the Journal of Accounting and Economics and Dean’s Award for Research Excellence from Marshall.
Wittenberg-Moerman is the senior editor of the Journal of Accounting Research. She also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Journal of Accounting Research and is a referee for numerous journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Finance and Journal of Financial Economics.
Wittenberg-Moerman is the senior editor of the Journal of Accounting Research. She also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Journal of Accounting Research and is a referee for numerous journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Finance and Journal of Financial Economics.
Forester Wong
Building
ACC
Room / Office
308D
Assistant Professor of Accounting
PhD, Columbia University
Forester joined the Leventhal School of Accounting in 2016. His research uses a combination of unique settings, big data, and emerging technology to understand the role of corporate governance and information frictions in both developed and emerging economies. He studies developed economies to understand how different corporate governance mechanisms can be used to mitigate agency conflicts. His work in emerging economies is designed to understand how information frictions are created and how they can be overcome.
T.J. Wong
Building
HOH
Room / Office
817
Joseph A. DeBell Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Accounting
PhD, MBA, UCLA;
T.J. Wong is an expert on accounting and corporate governance in emerging markets. He has published numerous articles in top accounting and finance journals. He is currently the associate editor of Management Science and has served as an editor for The Accounting Review and in the editorial board of several accounting journals. His research is frequently featured in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Globe and Mail and South China Morning Post. Prior to joining USC, he served as the Dean of the CUHK Business School from 2008 to 2013.
Shelley Xin Li
Building
ACC
Room / Office
308E
Assistant Professor of Accounting
DBA, Harvard University
Shelley Xin Li received her Doctoral degree in Business Administration (Accounting and Management) from the Harvard Business School in May 2016. She joined the Leventhal School of Accounting as an assistant professor of accounting in June 2016. Shelley examines the role of management control and corporate governance mechanisms in driving innovation and long-term performance. She analyzes archival data and employs field experiments in her research. Her dissertation examines the problem of motivating innovation in a multi-tasking environment and finds that under certain conditions reduced time pressure on execution tasks is associated with more employee-initiated innovation. Shelley's research has already been published in the Accounting Review. She has won the AAA/Grant Thornton Doctoral Dissertation Award.
S. Mark Young
Building
ACC
Room / Office
123
George Bozanic and Holman G. Hurt Chair in Sports Entertainment Business & Professor of Accounting
PhD, University of Pittsburgh; MAcc, The Ohio State University; BA, Oberlin College
S. Mark Young studies management control system design in entertainment. He has published in JAR, TAR and JMAR. His book, The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America, is a New York Times Best Seller. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Management Accounting, the Notable Contributions to the Accounting Literature Award, and the Notable Contributions to the Management Accounting Literature Award (three times). He is the Official Historian of the USC Men’s Tennis Team and author of, Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California. Young is also a distinguished fellow of the Center for Excellence in Teaching.
Adjunct and Part-time
Tony Aaron
Building
ACC
Room / Office
ACC 214
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
Tony Aaron is currently serving as an Adjunct Professor in the Leventhal School of Accounting at the University of Southern California. He has spent over 36 years in financial analysis. The majority of his career took place at Ernst & Young LLP, and he spent time earlier in his career as a securities analyst. Tony has served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Appraisal Foundation, as well as in many other roles with the ASA, the AICPA and the Appraisal Foundation. He received his BS from USC and his MBA from UCLA.
Paul Bader
Building
BRI
Room / Office
207
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
Adjunct Professor Paul Bader was formerly a partner in the New York office of EY. He had several roles at EY over the course of his career including Partner in Charge of the NY International Tax Practice, Managing Partner of the NY Tax Practice, Managing Partner of Metro NY area, Vice Chair of the Americas M&A practice, Americas Private Equity practice and the Americas Director of Strategy. Adjunct Professor Bader spent the last seven years of his EY career consulting with digital media companies on their global operations. He served on the boards of Carnegie Hall, Citizens Budget Commission and American Red Cross. Adjunct Professor Bader retired from EY at the end of 2016 and now resides in Santa Monica.
David Boschetto
Building
ACC
Room / Office
214
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
MBT, University of Southern California; B.B.A., Loyola Marymount University
David Boschetto retired from the Internal Revenue Service in October 2016 after 31 years of service. His last position with the IRS was that of Subject Matter Expert in the Methods of Accounting & Timing Practice Network in the Large Business & International (LB&I) Division. David is a licensed CPA in California and is a 2005 graduate of USC's Master of Business Taxation (MBT) program.
George Braunegg
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
B.S., Indiana University of Pennsylvania; MBA, University of Southern California
George Braunegg is an entrepreneur and management consultant with over 36 years of Consulting and Public Accounting experience heavily focused on the Financial Services and Insurance Industries. During his work with CEOs and Executive Leadership teams George’s areas of specialization included Corporate and Distribution Strategy, Regulatory Compliance/Risk Management and Delivery Model Optimization.
George began his professional career as an Auditor at KPMG. After becoming a CPA George transferred into the firm’s Financial Service Consulting Practice. In 1986, along with two other KPMG colleagues, George Co-Founded CAST Management Consultants (CAST), a highly regarded national, boutique management consulting firm that exclusively focused on the Financial Services and Insurance Industries. George retired from full time consulting in October of 2017 after he and his partners sold the firm.
Currently George is an Advisor and an Investor in a Silicon Valley Fintech Firm and teaches M&A Accounting to MBA’s and Masters of Accounting Students in the Marshall School of Business. In addition, George serves on the Board of Directors of several Not-For-Profits and one publicly traded company.
George has a B.S. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from the University of Southern California. He is a CPA in California and Pennsylvania and is a member of the American Institute of CPA’s.
Diane Comi
Building
ACC
Room / Office
111
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
LL.M., Boston University; J.D., Southwestern University School of Law; B.S., University of Southern California
Diane Comi began her legal career in the Tax Department of PriceWaterhouse Coopers in Los Angeles and then transferred to PwC’s Boston office to pursue an LL.M. (Taxation) at Boston University School of Law. After graduation, she worked in the Tax and Corporate Departments of Wood, Lucksinger & Epstein in Century City. Before forming her own firm in 1991, Diane practiced law at Reish & Luftman and today continues her transactional law practice representing a wide and diverse client base, in addition to serving as Of Counsel to Michels & Lew in West Los Angeles.
Cynthia Gensler
Building
ACC
Room / Office
207
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
J.D., Southwestern School of Law; BBA, University of West Los Angeles
Cynthia Gensler, a former attorney at Simon and Sheridan and Mitsui Manufacturer's Bank, Cynthia has owned Cynthia Gensler, Inc. for over 25 years. In addition to being an adjunct professor at University of Southern California, Gensler has taught seminars on etiquette and financial management at Brinnegar Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Nauheim Straus Charitable Foundation, Inc. Cynthia is a certified specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law and holds a B.A. in Paralegal Studies from the University of West Los Angeles and a J.D. from Southwestern School of Law.
James Leonetti
Building
ACC
Room / Office
214
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
BS, Accounting, University of Southern California
James ( "Jim") Leonetti, has served as a senior financial executive in the finance, banking, real estate, mortgage and rental equipment industries. With a record of success with both publicly traded and private companies, he has demonstrated expertise in leading companies through a number of challenging and growth opportunities including: Initial Public Offerings, dividend recapitalizations, debt restructurings and modifications, equity raises, cost reduction and operational restructuring, and Corporate sales. He has been the key leader over a variety of business functions, including: Finance, SEC reporting, Accounting, Mergers, Due diligence, Credit Administration, Asset Resolution, Information technology, and Investor relations.
Mike Paranal
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
Professor Michael Paranal, CPA is a lawyer admitted to practice in New York and California. He is also admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in England and Wales. He worked as a capital markets attorney for Latham & Watkins in London, UK, and In 2015 was awarded the Robert Bosch Fellowship in Accounting and Securities Regulation. He joined the European Central Bank as the only non-EU citizen working in the Financial Law Division during the time of the European Debt Crisis.
Professor Paranal is an alumnus of the USC MBT Program. He also earned his JD MBA at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, as well as a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law at the University of Oxford. He is currently part of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s Tax Transaction Advisory Group.
Samuel Perlmutter
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
Professor Herb Perlmutter retired from Deloitte in 2019 after 41 years, including 31 years as a partner. During that time, he served as lead audit partner for clients in the technology, life sciences and consumer products industries. Professor Perlmutter also served as the Partner-in-Charge of Deloitte’s Pacific Southwest Audit Practice, which encompassed the offices in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Professor Perlmutter received the Leventhal School’s 2007 Distinguished Alumnae Award, and serves on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of A Better L.A.
Thomas Phelps
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
Thomas is the VP of Corporate Strategy & CIO for Laserfiche, a global provider of enterprise content management and process automation software. Thomas joined Laserfiche in 2014 and leads IT, industry marketing, analyst relations and major strategic initiatives. Prior to Laserfiche, Thomas was the national entertainment and media champion for cybersecurity at PwC. He led the initiative to innovate content security practices used worldwide in the motion picture industry. He was the Advisory Services leader for two major accounts, and provided Fortune 500 clients with consulting services on IT audit, IT transformation, security, privacy and business continuity areas. Thomas is a Past-President of ISACA Los Angeles, and on the 50th Anniversary Governance Panel. He serves on the board of directors for Innovate@UCLA, Southern California, SIM, Advancing Women in Technology and LA Blockchain Lab. He has co-authored and contributed to five books.
Harris Smith
Building
ACC
Room / Office
214
Adjunct Professor of Accounting
BS, Accounting, University of Baltimore
Harris Smith is a retired audit partner with Grant Thornton and served clients across a broad array of industries over his 40 year career.
Harris began with GT in Baltimore, transferred to LA in 1989. Harris transferred to San Francisco as Managing Partner and in 2002 he became the West Region Managing Partner. In 2005 Harris relocated to LA and in 2009 transitioned back into a client service role.
He is the President of the Board of JVS of LA, a member of the California Society and American Institute of CPA’s and has served on various other community Boards.
Emeriti
Jerry Arnold
Professor Emeritus of Accounting
PhD, University of Michigan; MA, BS, University of Missouri
Jerry Arnold's research focuses on SEC disclosure and accounting standard-setting. He has published articles in numerous journals including Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Accountancy, Research in Accounting Regulation, The Corporation Law Review, Management Accounting, Journal of Commercial Bank Lending, and the Journal of the American Taxation Association. Professor Arnold has served as managing editor of Accounting Horizons, as a member of AICPA Committee on SEC Regulations, and was founding director of the SEC and Financial Reporting Institute. He has consulted for numerous companies from start-ups to multinational corporations on SEC compliance and capital formation.
Joseph Keller
Professor Emeritus of Clinical Accounting
MS, BS, Utah State University
Joseph Keller is an expert on accounting in the financial services, manufacturing and real estate industries. He has published articles for the National Association for Real Estate Investment Trusts. He received the Utah State University Professional Achievement Award and the Utah State University Beta Alpha Psi Alumnus of The Year Award. Professor Keller is a former member of the Tax Legislation and Policy Committee, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and past chairman of the Dean's Advisory Council at Utah State's College of Business.
Thomas Lin
Professor Emeritus of Accounting
PhD, The Ohio State University; MS, UCLA; MBA, National Chengchi University; BA, National Taiwan University
Thomas Lin specializes in management accounting and control systems, strategic cost management, and Chinese accounting and management. He has published over 50 articles in refereed journals and several books, including Cost Management and Advanced Auditing. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Economics and Management and the Journal of Accounting and Corporate Governance. He received best paper awards from the Journal of Management Accounting Research and the 9th World Congress of Accounting Educators, is the founding president of the Chinese Accounting Professors Association of North America, and former president of the Chinese-American Faculty Association of Southern California.
Kenneth Merchant
Building
ACC
Room / Office
308
Emeritus Deloitte & Touche LLP Chair in Accountancy and Emeritus Professor of Accounting
PhD, UC-Berkeley; MBA, Columbia University; BA, Union College
Kenneth Merchant is an expert in management accounting, management control systems, and corporate governance. He has published in many journals, including Accounting, Organizations and Society, The Accounting Review, Industrial Relations, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Marketing, and Management Science. He has received numerous awards, including five Notable Contributions to Research awards from the American Accounting Association, two for lifetime contributions to the field. He also received an honorary doctorate from the Turku School of Economics (Finland) in 2010. Professor Merchant served as Dean of the Leventhal School of Accounting from 1994 to 2001. Before joining USC, he taught at Harvard Business School and UC-Berkeley.
Theodore Mock
Professor Emeritus of Accounting
PhD, UC-Berkeley; MBA, BS, The Ohio State University
Ted Mock is an expert in auditing and decision making, especially auditor judgment, assurance services, and evidential reasoning. He has published in The Accounting Review and the Journal of Accounting Research, served as editor of Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, and served on the editorial board of The Accounting Review and Accounting, Organizations and Society. Professor Mock has received the Wildman Award, the Auditing Section Outstanding Auditing Educator Award, and the ABO Notable [Lifetime] Contribution Award from the American Accounting Association. He is a former president of the auditing section of the American Accounting Association.
Zoe-Vonna Palmrose
Accounting Circle Professor Emeritus of Accounting
PhD, MBA, University of Washington; BS, Oregon State University
Zoe-Vonna Palmrose has published and spoken extensively on financial reporting and auditing, including restatements, materiality, audit litigation, and pricing of audit services. She received the American Accounting Association Competitive Manuscript Award, the California Society of CPAs Accounting Faculty Fellow Award, the Deloitte/AAA Wildman Award, the AAA Auditing Section’s 2003 Distinguished Service Award, and is a PricewaterhouseCoopers Fellow in Auditing. From 2006 to 2008, she served as Deputy Chief Accountant for Professional Practice in the Office of the Chief Accountant at the SEC. Treasury and Risk Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in finance in 2008.
Leslie Porter
Professor Emeritus of Clinical Accounting
PhD, UCLA; MS, BS, University of British Columbia
Les Porter specializes in organizational structure and accounting, particularly in the area of information technology. He directs the Accounting Information Systems program, and has consulted for a variety of organizations such as the Index Group and IBM
Kendall Simmonds
Building
ACC
Room / Office
209A
Professor Emeritus of Clinical Accounting
MBA, UC-Berkeley; BA, CSU-Hayward
Kendall Simmonds is a two-time receipient of the prestigious Marshall School of Business Golden Apple Excellence in Teaching Award. He has served as Director of the Marshall Undergraduate Honors Program and is currently the Director of the Leventhal School Summer Leadership Program (SLP). He is a member of the National Association of Financial Planners, National Association of Accountants, National Association of Black Accountants, and American Accounting Association.
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Leventhal School of Accounting
ACC 101, mc 0441
3660 Trousdale Parkway
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0441