of what we wanted to achieve, we brought our ability to dialog about complex issues to bear on developing a set of strategic priorities. We agreed on 9 strategic priorities. One of these priorities is to achieve separate AACSB accounting

accreditation, the internationally recognized Gold standard for accounting programs. In this regard, our initial self-evaluation report was accepted unconditionally by the AACSB. We are now looking forward to hosting the AASCB team that will visit us early in 2016 to conduct a peer review. I am proud of the work the department has recently done, and I feel thankful and fortunate to be in a position to lead the department forward to the next level of success. As a department, we remain grateful for all the support we receive from our friends, students and graduates. Without that support, little of what we do would be meaningful. In this newsletter, we highlight some of our stakeholders’ accomplishments.

Warmest regards for a productive 2016,Ananth SeetharamanChairperson and EY Distinguished Professor of Accountingacas@slu.edu314-977-3828

Dear Friends of the Department of Accounting:

Welcome to the fall 2015 edition of the department newsletter. Last year, around this time, the department faculty began to work together to formalize a mission statement that would define the department’s core purpose and focus. After several intensive sessions that involved input from our advisory board members, undergraduate and graduate student representatives, and staff, the department unanimously and enthusiastically adopted the following: The mission of the Department of Accounting is to: • Provide premier undergraduate and graduate accounting programs, with a focus on critical thinking and business ethics, which attract and graduate talented and diverse students who become successful professionals and pursue service to humanity in their daily lives. • Conduct scholarly research, with a focus on informing the practice of accounting, and integrate it into the educational process. • Provide a collegial work environment that supports the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and service. • Build mutually beneficial relationships with other departments within the university, the business community, and alumni in order to be of value to our constituents. Our mission statement is transparent to all our stakeholders: it is visible on the department’s web page, it has been distributed to all the advisory board members, to all the faculty and staff members in the John Cook School of Business, and it has been framed and placed on the walls in all department faculty members’ offices. After we developed a shared understanding

Department of AccountingFALL 2015 NEWSLETTER

Message From Department Chair

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Seated from left to right: Dr. Ananth Seetharaman, Dr. Denise Amrhein, Mr. Neil Jansen, and Dr. John McGowan. Standing from left to right: Ms. Debbie Barbeau, Ms. Carolyn Westfall, Dr. Helen Hurwitz, Dr. Yan Sun, Ms. Debbie Pike, Dr. Frank Wang, Dr. Scott Duellman, and Dr. Weimin Wang.

New Dean of JCSB Mark Higgins, Ph.D., is the Dean of the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University, a position he assumed in January 2015. Dean Higgins brings with him experience, energy, vision and enthusiasm to Saint Louis University. The Cook school is already benefitting from the excellent leadership provided by Dean Higgins. Prior to his appointment, he had served since 2006 as the Dean and Alfred J. Verrecchia Hasbro Inc. Leadership Chair in Business at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Higgins began his academic career at the University of Rhode Island as an Assistant Professor in 1988. He earned his doctorate from the University of Tennessee and is a CPA (inactive). Prior to his tenure at URI, he was a Tax Manager for Ernst and Young (formerly Arthur Young) in New York City. He currently serves as co-Chair of The Implementation Phase of the Pathways Commission -- Charting a National Strategy for the Next Generation of Accountants a jointly sponsored effort of the American Accounting Association (AAA) and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Previously, he served as a Supply Chain leader for the initial Pathways Commission. Dr. Higgins has served as President of the American Taxation Association (2006-2007) and on the Executive Committee of the American Accounting Association as Vice President for Sections and Regions (2006-2008). He has twice served as the Program Chair and as President for the Northeast Region. In 2006, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Northeast Region of the American Accounting Association and in 2009 received the American Taxation Association Outstanding Service Award. In 2011, he served at the request of the Rhode Island State Treasurer as part of a 12 member advisory group to offer recommendations on Rhode Island’s $7.5 billion unfunded pension liability. In 2008, he served on the Rhode Island Governors Tax Policy Workforce. He was a member of the Board of Directors for Beta Alpha Psi from 2008-2011.

Happy Hour with Dean Higgins Dean Higgins and the Accounting faculty had a happy hour at Mi Caribe in September. Everyone is HAPPY and looking forward to the next one!

New Faculty Member Professor Carolyn Westfall joined the Saint Louis University accounting faculty in Fall 2015. Carolyn was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio last year and is completing her PhD study at the University of South Carolina. She received a BS and BA degree from Rhodes College and a Master of Science in Accounting from Southern Methodist University. Carolyn worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in their Dallas office for four years. Her teaching areas include audit and financial accounting. Her primary research interests relate to how accounting regulation and report features impact non-professional investor behavior.

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List of Donors (Jan. 2014 – Aug. 2015) As noted earlier, gifts to the Accounting Department Development Fund are used for program enhancement purposes including funding for Beta Alpha Psi events, Meet the Firms Night, other student-oriented events, innovative faculty research or teaching projects, and teaching and research assistants. The department of accounting accepts with gratitude the contributions to the accounting development fund by the following individuals and organizations.

$2,000 & aboveDan Dolan

EY FoundationPWC Foundation

Eugene MorgenthalerRick Nicoletti

Timothy BeranekThomas HiltonMike Sindelar

Up to $1,999BKDBKD FoundationDeloitte FoundationSteve Gustafson (Abeles & Hoffman)Edward JonesWilliam Kaiser (Grant Thornton)Marty Lyons (Ameren)Judy MurphyCharles UrschlerJohn EichhornDouglas HeitkampKPMG FoundationAdam ZierenHarry MidowsStephen MoehrleChris PingelGrant Thornton Foundation

Advisory Board Members The Advisory Board provides valuable advice and generous support to the Accounting Department. In this newsletter, we highlight two of our esteemed advisory board members. Cliff Stebe is chief financial officer of LMI

Aerospace Inc., a leading supplier of structural solutions and engineering services to the commercial, business and regional, and military aerospace markets. LMI is a publically traded company headquartered in St. Charles, Mo., with annual

revenue of approximately $400 million. LMI has approximately 2,000 employees at 22 operations across the United States and in Mexico, the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. Before becoming CFO in November 2013, Cliff served as corporate controller starting in June 2010. Prior to LMI, Cliff was with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for approximately 12 years. While at PwC, he served in various positions including as senior manager of Assurance and Business Advisory Services during his last four years at the firm. Cliff holds a bachelor of science in Business Administration from Saint Louis University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. He

serves on the advisory board to the Department of Accounting at Saint Louis University’s John Cook School of Business as well as the finance advisory board for Francis Howell School District in St. Charles, Mo. Rick Scarfino is an audit partner at BDO. Rick leads the Central Region of the firm’s National Service Organization Control (SOC) practice and is responsible for supporting the National SOC Practice Leader in managing and growing that practice. His role includes serving on the firm’s SOC practice working group which assists the National SOC Practice Leader in developing SOC practice templates, guidance, policies and procedures as well as coordinating SOC national and regional marketing and business development activities. Rick possesses over 15 years of auditing experience and his expertise lies in providing SOC, SysTrust and WebTrust for Certification Authorities attestation services to clients. He has extensive audit and advisory experience serving in the areas of technology and health insurance administration. In addition, he assists early-stage businesses and life science companies in growing their companies. Rick is also responsible for consultation on audit-related issues and proactive delivery of audit services.

-continued on page three

Accounting Pre-Interview and Networking Fair The students at Saint Louis University continue to be in great demand by local firms for accounting and business positions. On September 10th, the Career Center hosted an Accounting Pre-Interview and Networking Fair in Busch Student Center where numerous firms met with our students in an effort to recruit them for various positions.

Through his dedication and hard work, Rick has earned impressive certifications, published several audit-related articles and has emerged as a recognized leader in the industry.

Matthew Wertheimer and Samantha Morr

from KPMG

Rebecca Wissmann and Melissa Echart from Ernst & Young

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PwC Challenge Once again, the Department of Accounting partnered with the international accounting firm PwC in fall 2014 to offer our students the unique opportunity to take part in the annual PwC Challenge. The PwC Challenge is a group competition in which students are assigned a complex real world case study in which they are required to analyze, and ultimately present their findings to a panel of judges from PwC. The competition took place over two weeks and required a significant time commitment from students partaking in the competition. While the case studies for the competition are focused on accounting, they also include aspects of multiple business disciplines such as finance, IT, and marketing. As such, the teams participating are typically diverse in terms of the students’ concentrations, as well as their ages. Eight teams participated in the 2014 PwC Challenge. Once again the judges were extremely complimentary of all of the teams and were very impressed with the number of participants and the quality of the presentations. The winners of the 2014 competition were: Victoria Morman, Claire Vaupel, Byron Abrigg, and Austin Smith, and were mentored by faculty member Ms. Debbie Pike. We are proud to be one of only two schools in Missouri that PwC has chosen to partake in this annual competition, and we look forward to continuing this relationship as we plan for the PwC Challenge in 2015 and beyond.

Beta Alpha Psi

Our Beta Alpha Psi Chapter at SLU continues to achieve new levels of success. It seems like only yesterday we reported that Beta Alpha Psi’s National organization had awarded the Zeta Nu Chapter Superior status for the first time. But time sure flies when you are having fun and we are proud to note that the Chapter has earned this recognition for three years running! To achieve this award, each candidate and member had to participate in an average of 32 hours of professional and service activities. In addition, a number of special criteria had to be met such as making a presentation at the Regional Meeting. Our most recent slate of ‘Superior’ Officers that achieved Superior status for 2014-2015 were:

• Stephanie Sheehan, President • Fara Heumann, Vice President • Dan Garvey (1st semester) and Cait Khoury (2nd semester), Reporting Secretaries • Kathleen Kickham, Treasurer • Sarah Schmidt, Corresponding Secretary • Breanna Lockette, Webmaster

In addition to a schedule packed with professional meetings and social events, the Chapter engaged in an exciting service project. BAP students adapted financial literacy materials and conducted training sessions to local academically promising yet economically-disadvantaged students participating in Boys Hope, Girls Hope. The workshops covered such topics as budgeting, debt management, credit worthiness and the benefits of education. BAP and Boys Hope Girls Hope agreed that this was an impactful and very meaningful service opportunity.

“Meet the Firms” Night The Department of Accounting held its twelfth annual “Meet the Firms” Night on April 23, 2015. During this event, representatives from area accounting firms, corporate accounting and not-for-profit organizations are on hand to meet with current and prospective accounting students to acquaint them with career opportunities in the three accounting areas. The Department of Accounting wishes to thank all the firms who participated in this event, including Anders, Aramark, Becker Professional Education, BDK LLP, Brown Smith Wallace LLC, CBIZ MHM LLC, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, Deloitte, Edward Jones, Ernst & Young LLP, Grant Thornton LLP, KPMG LLP, LMI Aerospace, Missouri Society of CPAs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Protiviti, RubinBrown LLP, Schowalter & Jabouri PC, St. Louis International Tax Group, St. Louis Symphony, Stone Carlie, Tax Executive Institute, and UHY Advisors Inc. The department of accounting would like to thank the generous contributions by EY and BKD to the Accounting Department Development fund. These contributions enable the department to subscribe to research databases for use by students and faculty.

The following scholarship recipients were recognized at the event:

Anders Undergraduate Scholarship .......................................................................................... Laura HermanArthur Andersen Graduate Scholarship ..................................................................................... Xinting WangBKD Graduate Scholarship ...................................................................................................... Jordan TierneyBKD Undergraduate Scholarship .........................................................................................Zachary VaningerCBIZ Undergraduate Scholarship ...............................................................................................Marcie PagelDeloitte Undergraduate Scholarships ........................................................................................... Joel OcampoRalph J. Eckberg, Jr. Graduate Scholarship ...................................................................................Lihuan ZhuErnst & Young Undergraduate Scholarships: ............................Lauren Hoss, Mary LeDoux, Victoria Morman,

Eric Moynahan, Andrew Otto, Jeneane SalamehErnst & Young Graduate Scholarships: ....................................Rachel Campbell, Patrick Kella, Laura PowderlyKPMG Graduate Scholarships ...............................................................................Colleen Dunn, Eric LequiaRubinBrown Undergraduate Scholarships ................................................... Andrew Perito, Lauren SendelbeckGerald Sax Undergraduate Scholarship .................................................................................... Joshua DuncanSt. Louis International Tax Group Scholarship ............................................................................David SheetsTax Executive Institute Scholarship ............................................................................................ Rebekah ZilzUHY Advisors Undergraduate Scholarship ..............................................................................Katherine PolusMark & Mary Wuller Graduate Scholarship .............................................................................. Allison Miller

BAP members at the Boys Hope Girls Hope financial literacy event

BAP Spring 2015 initiation

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Pre-Interview & Networking Fair - cont.

Luke McGowan, Shanell Ceaser,

Michelle Murray, and Jordan Tierney from

Segue Partners

Ashley Rogers and Joseph Catanzaro from

RubinBrown

Natalie Wakeman and Sara Schreiner from

Anders

Faculty ResearchRecent Faculty Publications

Duellman, S., Hurwitz, H., and Sun, Y. 2015. Managerial Overconfidence and Audit Fees. Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Volume 11 (2), pp. 148-165.

Hardaway, D., Harryvan, R. J., Wang, X., and Goodson, J. 2015. Partnering with Practice: How Partnerships can be Developed, Shared and Managed. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, forthcoming. McGowan, J. 2015. Multiemployer Pensions: A Performance Update and Improving Disclosures for Participants. Journal of Deferred Compensation, forthcoming.

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Kuo, C., Wang, X., and Yu, S. 2015. Investor Perception of Managerial Discretion in Valuing Stock Options: An Empirical Examination. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, forthcoming.

Sun, Y. 2015. Internal Control Weakness Disclosure and Firm Investment. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, forthcoming.

Recent Conference Presentations

Chakrabarty, B., Seetharaman, A., Swanson, Z. (Presenter), Wang, X. (Presenter). “Management Risk Incentives and the Readability of Corporate Disclosures,” American Accounting Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL. August 2015.

Chakrabarty, B., Seetharaman, A. (Presenter), Swanson, Z., Wang, X. “Management Risk Incentives and the Readability of Corporate Disclosures,” American Accounting Association Midwest Region Meeting, St. Louis, MO, October 2015.

Duellman, S. (Presenter), Hurwitz, H., and Sun, Y. “Managerial Overconfidence and Audit Fees,” American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, August 2015.

Duellman, S., Hurwitz, H. (Presenter), and Sun, Y. “Managerial Overconfidence and Audit Fees,” Annual Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics (JCAE) Symposium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, January 2015.

Guithues-Amrhein, D. (Presenter). “The Importance of Measurement and Accounting in Achieving Sustainability,” American Accounting Association Midwest Region Meeting, St. Louis, MO, October 2015.

Hurwitz, H. (Presenter). “Can Bad News Management Forecasts Be Trusted? Evidence of Strategic Understatement of Bad News,” American Accounting Association Midwest Region Meeting, St. Louis, MO, October 2015.

Hurwitz, H., and Sun, Y. (Presenter). “Changes in Management Forecast Strategies around Regulation FD,” American Accounting Association Midwest Region Meeting, St. Louis, MO, October 2015.

Faculty Awards Dr. Scott Duellman Nokyoon Kwak Research Award for an Assistant Professor, 2014 Beta Gamma Sigma Outstanding Teacher Award, 2015

Ms. Debbie Pike YWCA Leader in the Work Place, Women’s Commission of Saint Louis University, 2015

The Chapter’s Officers for 2015-2016 are: • Brigitta Davis, President • Kim Le, Vice-President • Zach Vaninger, Reporting Secretary • Jack Toler, Treasurer • Cindy Wang, Corresponding Secretary • Kelly Anderson, Webmaster

A few officers were able to attend the Annual Meeting in Milwaukee in August, and with that inspiration, are working hard to get this year’s activities planned and executed with enthusiasm.

Beta Alpha Psi - cont.

Accounting Dept. Receives $2.1 Million Alumnus Bequest (SLU Newslink, August 21, 2015) Saint Louis University’s Office of Planned Giving has announced that the University is the recipient of a recent bequest totaling $2.1 million. The generous gift was made by the estate of Alfred Dunkin Sr., an alumnus of SLU’s business school (‘24) and an accountant who was retired from Edison Brothers in St. Louis, and his wife Irene. The gift will create a scholarship fund for accounting majors in the John Cook School of Business, called the Alfred and Irene Dunkin Scholarship, as well as the Alfred V. Dunkin Professorship in Accounting, also in the business school. While working full time, Dunkin attended night classes to earn his accounting degree from Saint Louis University, which enabled him to have a long and fruitful career. His son, Alfred Dunkin Jr., also attended SLU, graduating from the business school in 1950 and the law school in 1953. “Through the generosity of alumni like Mr. Dunkin, the Cook School has the ability to attract and retain the quality faculty we need so we can continue to provide our students with a first-class Jesuit education,” said Mark Higgins, Ph.D., dean of the John Cook School of Business. “Additionally, Mr. Dunkin’s support ensures that capable accounting students of all socio-economic backgrounds have access to that education. This posthumous gift is greatly appreciated by all in the John Cook School of Business.”

BAP officers at the service event of the 2015 National Meeting

New for this year is a joint social event with the Chapter from SIU-Edwardsville. BAP’s Trivia Night, which is the Chapter’s main fundraiser, will be held soon on November 4, 2015 and is eagerly anticipated. It’s a night of fun and friendly competition between current members and candidates, faculty, and many alumni who return as firm-sponsored participants. Our Fall Initiation Banquet will be held December 3, 2015 and we are excited to share that JCSB Dean, Dr. Mark Higgins will be our guest speaker. It seems that there is always something going on with BAP and the Chapter gratefully acknowledges the many supporters across the community, without whom this great organization couldn’t succeed.

Ms. Debbie Barbeau Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding Faculty Member, 2015

Faculty Speaking EngagementsDr. John McGowan • Spoke to Missouri Society of Accountants about Professional Skepticism for Accountants in September 2015. • Spoke at the annual conference of Credit Analysts at Americas Center about the effect of IFRS on financial statements and the credit decisions in August 2015. • Presented a seminar on Ethics and the AICPA Revised Code of Professional Responsibility sponsored by the Emerson Leadership Institute and Lopata Flegal and Company in October 2015.

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For the August/September 2015 period:

Madeleine Appelbaum

Brett BronenkampRachel Campbell

Joseph CatanzaroAndrew Greene

Fara Heumann

Maureen Horgan

Patrick Kella

Jacob Maret

Ryan Wendt

For the May/June 2015 period:

Joseph BeatyBrian Kortkamp

Derek PiperLaura Powderly

For the December 2014-March 2015 period:

John DulleJohn Jabouri

Carly Schumaker

For the October/December 2014 period:

Lucas Bigford

William Christian

Chao Huang

Andrew Knop

Ashley RogersNatalie Wakeman

BSBA-AcctMACCMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctBSBA-Acct MACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-EconMACCBSBA-Acct

BSBA-Acct & IBBSBA-Acct MACCMACCMACC

BSBA-AcctBSBA-Acct MACCBSBA-Acct

BSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-AcctMACCBSBA-Acct/IBBSBA-AcctMACC

CPA PassersThe department congratulates the following awesome Saint Louis University graduates who passed the Uniform CPA Exam. Way to go!

Department EventsThe Accounting Department hosted a number of events to provide accounting students opportunities to network with accounting professionals and to get more information about the CPA exam and future job opportunities.

“Meet the Firms” Night On April 23, 2015, the accounting department held its twelfth annual “Meet the Firms” Night. Representatives from accounting firms, corporate firms, and not-for-profit organizations attended the event. At the event, one representative from each accounting area (public, corporate, not-for-profit) made a brief presentation on career opportunities in their particular area. These presentations were followed by a Q&A period and a reception. This event provides the students with an opportunity to learn more about accounting careers and to network with representatives from firms and industry. Please refer to the “Meet the Firms’ Night section for more information on this event.

CPA Town Hall MeetingOn March 26, 2015, the accounting department held a CPA Town Hall meeting for accounting students to provide information and answer questions about the CPA exam. Dr. Ananth Seetharaman provided students with information regarding the programs offered within the department of accounting, as well as his insight into the importance of being adequately prepared for the CPA examination. Michael Ludwig, a graduate of the SLU MACC program and a current employee of EY, shared with the students how he prepared for the examination. Kristin Datillo from Becker was in attendance to answer questions from students. Representatives from KPMG provided information about different career paths within the accounting profession, and within KPMG.

MACC Happy HourOn April 24, 2015, the accounting department hosted a happy hour for MACC and Integrated accounting students at Humphrey’s. The happy hour gave students opportunity to engage in casual conversation with classmates, faculty, and advisory board members.

MACC Breakfast ReceptionOn September 10, 2015, the accounting department hosted a breakfast reception to welcome new and returning MACC and Integrated accounting students in the prefunction area outside of the Anheuser Busch Auditorium in Cook Hall. Members of the Advisory Board of the accounting department and faculty members of the accounting department attended the reception.

Network4LunchTM SeriesWith the generous support of the Department Advisory Board members, accounting students are able to meet with the board members for luncheons. Six and ten luncheons were held in fall 2014 and spring 2015, respectively. The Network4LunchTM Series provides excellent opportunities for undergraduate and graduate accounting students to interact and network with accounting leaders to get insights about the accounting profession. Dr. Yan Sun serves as the department coordinator for the Network4LunchTM Series. To participate, students should watch for emails from Ms. Patricia Galati in the first month of the fall and the spring semesters.

Spring Internship for Accounting Students In support of one of the Department’s strategic goals, a task force of Accounting faculty is looking into course changes and scheduling options that would allow students to fully participate in full-time spring internships during their fourth year. The Accounting Advisory Board was pleased and supportive of the overall direction. Look for an update in the next newsletter as the details of the approach are finalized.

Accounting Students Mentoring Program The Accounting Students Mentoring Program (ASMP) held their annual breakfast on November 11th. Ten students and eight mentors attended the breakfast. The ASMP pairs accounting degree candidates with recent graduates to provide guidance on preparing for the CPA exam, coursework they found helpful, and transitioning from the classroom to the office. If you would like to act as an accounting mentor, please contact Scott Duellman (duellman@slu.edu) for more details on how to get involved.

Students and faculty attend the MACC breakfast reception.

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AFFIXPOSTAGE

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John Cook School of Business3674 Lindell Blvd.St. Louis, MO 63108