F 2005 VOLUME 6, N 2 Ben Ayers is Tull Director Tmedia.terry.uga.edu/documents/accounting/tull_fall_2005.pdf · 2007. 8. 28. · Ben Ayers is Tull Director Steve Baginski Becomes

Manuscript Award. In 2003, he received theAmerican Taxation Association’s ManuscriptAward for his study investigating the effectsof tax rate changes on security prices. He is one of only two professors to receive both AAA’s Competitive Manuscript Award and the American Taxation Association’sManuscript Award.

Ben and his wife Marilyn have a three-year-old daughter and are expecting theirsecond child very soon.

Commenting on the appointment, DeanBenson said, “Ben has been a rising star onthe faculty from the time he arrived here.We’re excited and pleased to give him the

opportunity to apply the leadershiphe’s shown in research, teachingand public service as Director of theTull School of Accounting.

“I also want to thank SilviaMadeo for the strong leadershipshe’s provided,” Benson said. “TheTull School was reaccredited underher watch, has continued to hireoutstanding new faculty, and the

students who graduate from the program areperforming exceptionally well on the CPAexam and other measures.”

Tim Keadle of the Tull School Board ofAdvisors noted that, “Through his outstand-ing teaching and research, Ben has been agreat faculty member for many years. I knowthat he will be a terrific leader for the Schooland we are very fortunate to have him at theUniversity of Georgia.”

Steve Baginski will succeed BobGatewood as Associate Dean. Bob is retiringand moving to Fort Worth, Texas, with hiswife Chris Riordan who has accepted a posi-tion at Texas Christian University. The

F A L L 2 0 0 5 V O L U M E 6 , N U M B E R 2

Terry College of Business DeanGeorge Benson announced twosignificant appointments in Juneaffecting the Tull School ofAccounting. Ben Ayers was appointed asDirector of the Tull School, succeedingSilvia Madeo who retired as of June 30.Also, faculty member Steve Baginski wasappointed as Associate Dean for AcademicPrograms in the Terry College.

Ben joined our faculty in 1996 after com-pleting his PhD at the University of Texas inAustin. Earlier, he received BS and MTAdegrees from the University of Alabama.Ben worked as a tax consultant for KPMG inAtlanta and Tampa for several yearsbefore returning to school for hisPhD program.

He has taught introductory taxclasses to undergraduate students aswell as a highly regarded taxresearch class for MAcc students.Ben has received numerous teach-ing awards, including being namedas Teacher of the Year by our BetaAlpha Psi chapter five times!

Ben is also very active in accountingresearch, specializing in examining the taxand accounting influences on capital marketsas well as firm organization and acquisitiondecisions. Recently, he was listed as the sec-ond most prolific accounting researcherworldwide from the PhD class of 1996. Hehas had twenty papers published in suchleading journals as Accounting Review,Journal of Accounting and Economics,Journal of Finance, Journal of the AmericanTaxation Association, and National TaxJournal.

In 1997 his work on deferred taxaccounting received the highly prestigiousAmerican Accounting Association Competitive

It is my pleasure to write to you as thenew Director of the Tull School ofAccounting. This is my tenth year as afaculty member at the Terry College, and

I am honored to servein this position. TheTull School has a longhistory of being one ofthe top accountingprograms in the coun-try. We have excellentstudents who are high-ly sought after by

recruiters, an outstanding faculty com-mitted to excellence in the classroomand generating nationally recognizedresearch, and loyal alumni who caredeeply about the success of our School.As Director, I recognize how fortunate Iam to be associated with the Tull Schoolof Accounting and Terry College ofBusiness.

While we have every reason to beoptimistic about the future of the TullSchool (and we are), we do face somechallenges in the next year. During thepast academic year, three of our facultyretired (Ken Gaver, Silvia Madeo, andPaul Streer), Karen Braun relocated toCleveland, Ohio with her family, and twoof our faculty accepted new appoint-ments within the Terry College (Steve

BEN AYERS

Tull Grad News• p. 2 Faculty Activities • p. 5 Student Awards • p. 8

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Ben Ayers is Tull DirectorSteve Baginski Becomes Associate Dean

Baginski

2 • Tull School Update Fall 2005

J . M . T U L L S C H O O L O F A C C O U N T I N G — T E R R Y C O L L E G E O F B U S I N E S S

Now that the CPA exam is comput-erized and can be taken through-out the year, it’s harder to keeptrack of successful candidates. However,we’ve heard that recent graduates KosioDoukov, Brad Gugel, Emily Kisabeth,Jennifer Lollis, Ashley Marsh, ScottQuesnel, and Scott Turnbull passed all fourparts on their first attempt. Please let usknow if you did the same and we’ll reportyou in our next newsletter.

Seth Abrams (BBA’98, MAcc ’97) hasbeen promoted to Manager in the TaxDepartment at Gifford, Hillegass &Ingwersen, LLP. Prior to joining GH&I,Seth was a risk consultant at Deloitte. In hismost recent role, he has played a vital part inGH&I’s efforts to convert to paperless.

Ruth Barlett (BBA ’76 – see our AlumnusSpotlight article in the last issue of thisnewsletter) completed her term as Presidentof the Terry College Alumni Board in May.

Brian Bodker (BBA ’79) was recentlynamed by Atlanta Magazine as a “SuperLawyer” in the state of Georgia. This wasdetermined by his being in the top 5% of apoll of lawyers in the state. Brian is with thefirm of Bodker, Ramsey, Andrews, Winograd& Wildstein, PC in Atlanta.

Marvin Brown (BBA ’72) is President andCEO of Brown Valuation Group with officesin Athens and Atlanta. He is contributingeditor for PDI Global, Inc.’s “BusinessValuation Strategies” and “Valuation andLitigation Briefing” publications. He is alsoa contributing author for the AICPA’sBusiness Valuation/Litigation SupportServices section monthly e-newsletter.

The financial organization of TurnerBroadcasting System, Inc. has formed a ded-icated finance team to support the needs ofits Strategy and Operations group. Thisgroup includes the areas of broadcast andstudio operations, Internet technologies,information systems, platform research andnew product development. DennisBurroughs (BBA ’69), Vice President -Finance, Operations and Strategy, will part-ner with Turner’s Chief Accounting Officerto serve as the senior financial advisor to theStrategy and Operations group, whichincludes the Company’s Chief TechnicalOfficer and Chief Information Officer.

Phillip Carson (MAcc, JD ’85) is SeniorCounsel – Financial Reporting, for theAmerican Insurance Association inWashington, DC. Phillip notes that, “I neverrealized there were so many accounting andbusiness issues affecting the insurance indus-try until taking my current position. Thecontroversy surrounding the use of finitereinsurance is a unique accounting issue andI have found myself frequently called uponto provide an accounting primer on thisproduct and the underlying financial report-ing issues.”

Kendra Cheney (BBA ’00) was the 2005 1stQuarter recipient of the Moore Colson PeakAward as voted on by her peers. The MooreColson Peak Award goes to the individual whohas made a significant contribution to the firmby going above and beyond expectations.

In March, Roger Harris (BBA ’73) testi-fied before President Bush’s Advisory Panelon Federal Tax Reform. Roger is Presidentand Chief Operating Officer of Athens-based Padgett Business Services. Heexplained that, “My goal with this testimonyis to provide the panel with a glimpse intothe myriad of decisions that small businessowners must face before they even opentheir doors. Unfortunately, the complexityof those choices and the fear of penalty formaking the wrong choices can have theunintended effect of stifling growth and pre-venting people from achieving their dreamof owning their own business.”

Atlanta based Cox Enterprises announcedrecently that Jimmy W. Hayes (BBA ’74,MAcc ’75) has been appointed Executive VicePresident and will become President andChief Operating Officer as of the end of2005. Jimmy joined Cox in 1980 and contin-ues as Chief Financial Officer of CoxCommunications, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises,until year end. Cox Communications is thecountry’s third largest cable television compa-ny. Congratulations on this great accomplish-ment, Jimmy!

Joe Hines (MAcc ’03) tells us that he’sworking in Albania (that’s a country in east-ern Europe, not the city Albany in southernGeorgia!). He has been doing volunteerwork for the sisters of Mother Teresa andenjoying it a great deal. Joe reports that thecost of living is really low, major crime is

almost non-existent, and the Albanian peo-ple seem to love all things American. He alsonotes that there are no fast food restaurantsand he’s had to do a lot of walking so weightis dropping off with very little effort. Soundslike a great place to be.

The UGA Alumni Association announcedthat Tim Keadle (BBA ’78) has been electedto serve as a member of the Association’sExecutive Committee and as its Treasurerbeginning in July 2005. Tim is a partnerwith Porter Keadle Moore, LLP.

While we are only now catching up withthe great news, Jason D. McPherson (BBA’94) was admitted to the partnership of theAtlanta office of Mauldin & Jenkins inSeptember 2004.

Lowell Mooney (BBA ’78, MAcc ’79, andPhD ’89), Georgia Southern Universityaccounting professor, was named the 2005Accounting Educator of the Year by theEducation Foundation of the GeorgiaSociety of CPAs. Lowell joined GeorgiaSouthern as an assistant professor in 1989.In 2001, he was promoted to full professorof accounting and director of the School ofAccountancy in the College of Business

Bethany (Cochran) Morris (BBA andMAcc ’04) married Shaun Morris, a poultryscience graduate of UGA, in May. Bethanyhas moved from Deloitte in Atlanta toMauldin & Jenkins in Albany. She reportsthat she has passed the CPA exam and willreceive her certificate next year.

After finishing his MBA at Duke in May,Billy Murphy (MAcc ’98) has joined Johnson& Johnson in New Jersey as a SeniorFinancial Analyst.

Justin Owings (BBA, MAcc ’03) is nowworking in the corporate accounting depart-ment of Georgia Gulf Corporation inAtlanta. He and new wife Sonal were mar-ried in late May in Costa Rica. The weddingceremony combined Hindu and Christiantraditions and was attended by about 90family members and friends. Justin andSonal recently moved to the Ansley Park sec-tion of midtown Atlanta.

Vivian Owusu-Addo (BBA ’02) is current-ly working for Standard Trust Bank in Accra,Ghanna as an officer at the OperationsDepartment.

News About Tull Graduates

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Fall 2005 Tull School Update • 3

Ayers/Baginskicontinued from page 1

Tull Graduatescontinued from previous page

ONLINE?Then drop by

terry.uga.edu/accounting/

for the latest Tull

School news

and information!

Associate Dean oversees all undergraduateand graduate programs in business and theiraccreditation. These programs include thebachelor’s degree programs in Athens andGwinnett, seven master’s programs, includ-ing the Master of Accountancy, and doctor-al programs in eight disciplines.

Steve, a CPA, joined the Tull School fac-ulty in 2002 after earlier stints at IndianaUniversity and Florida State University. Seethe separate item in this newsletter for moreabout Steve’s background.

Dean Benson said of Steve’s new admin-istrative role, “He came to us three years agowith a stellar international reputation to fillthe prestigious Herbert Miller Chair ofFinancial Accounting, and he has exceededour expectations in every way. The adviceand counsel that he will provide and theguidance he’ll bring to all our degree pro-grams are critical to both the College andthe Tull School. I’m looking forward toworking closely with Steve in the yearsahead.” ■

Governor Sonny Perdue has appointedRonnie Rollins (BBA ’80) of Gray, GA tothe State Commission on the Efficacy of theCertificate of Need Program. Rollins servesas chief executive officer of CommunityHealth Systems, an integrated health deliv-ery system headquartered in Macon.

Prior to beginning his health care careerin 1986, Rollins was a partner with a region-al accounting firm with a primary practiceinterest in long-term care. Rollins is a mem-ber of the American College of Health CareAdministrators and has been involved in theGeorgia Nursing Home Association formany years. He is an ordained deacon andmember of First Baptist Church of Graywhere he has served as chairman of theboard of deacons. Rollins also serves on theexecutive committee of the board of direc-tors of First Presbyterian Day School and isa former Rotarian. Rollins and his wife,Sherri, have two children.

Chad H. Rothert (BBA ’98, MAcc ’99)married Laura Wood in April. They are liv-ing in Charlotte, NC where Chad is aManager with Cherry Bekaert & Hollandand Laura is a sales representative with SalvinDental Specialties.

Congratulations to Ashley P. Scott (BBA’93, MAcc ’94) who was elected to partner-ship at PricewaterhouseCoopers effectiveJuly 1, 2005. Ashley reports that she is help-ing with fund raising for the Earl Davis Chairat the Tull School of Accounting and sheurges all of those who were so positivelyinfluenced by Earl Davis to join in this effort.

John Shurley (BBA ’77) is an AuditPartner at Gifford, Hillegass and Ingwersen,LLP. Following graduation, John joinedErnst & Young in Atlanta where he was amember of the audit department for fiveyears. John has concentrated his services inthe areas of manufacturing, construction,distribution, and professional associations.GH&I celebrated its 25th anniversary at theFernbank Science Center this year.

Moore Colson in Atlanta announced thefollowing promotions this summer: AndyStarnes (BBA ’98, MAcc ’99) to TaxManager, Lauren Simms (BBA ’01) to TaxSenior Associate, and Amy Robbins(BBA/MAcc ’01) to Business AssuranceSupervisor. Andy and his wife Mary Evelyn(Norwood) Starnes (BBA ’98, MAcc ’99)

welcomed their first child this summer.Harold Storey (BBA ’42) recently

received the Medal of Honor from theNational Society of the Daughters of theAmerican Revolution. The award “showswhat an extraordinary effort (Storey) hasmade to help people around the worldthroughout his whole life,” said the personawarding the Medal. After distinguishedmilitary service during World War II inEurope, Harold served for many years aschairman of the board of his family’s busi-ness, S. I. Storey Lumber Co. He continuesto teach Sunday school at First BaptistChurch of Rome, and is involved in severalother community organizations.

Stacy (Gannon) Townsend (BBA ’00,MAcc ’01) reports the following: “Sincegraduation (I can’t believe it’s been fouryears!), I worked with Elliott Davis in theirAiken, SC office while living in Augusta.Jacob, my husband, was in medical schoolthere. We moved to Birmingham a year agoto start his residency in Internal Medicine atUAB (University of Alabama - Birmingham). Wereally love it here, but find it hard to live inAuburn/Roll Tide Country! I’m working inthe tax division for Warren, Averett,Kimbrough and Marino - a local CPA firm,but it has 150-200 people.”

Honored with one of the DistinguishedAlumni Awards at the Terry College awardsluncheon in May was Scott Voynich (BBA’75). Scott is Managing Partner ofRobinson, Grimes & Co. in Columbus, GA.Last year he completed a term as Chairmanof the American Institute of CPAs. Scott’sson, Steven, just completed his MAcc atUGA this Spring and has returned toColumbus to join Robinson, Grimes!

Alice (Qizhi) Wang (MAcc ’01) has beenpromoted to Senior Tax Accountant withGifford Hillegass & Ingwersen, LLP . Shereceived her CPA in 2004 and earned theExtra Mile Award of the firm for obtainingthe most chargeable hours for the year.

Brett Williams (BBA ’94) has been pro-moted to partner at Grant Thornton. Bretthas led the Business Advisory Services prac-tice in Atlanta since he joined the firm inMarch of 2004 and has grown the practicefrom 2 to 22. Brett’s wife and two little girlshave been his lifeline during his 11 years inpublic accounting! ■



Betsy Haywood-Sullivan earned herPhD in accounting from the TullSchool in 2001 and joined the facultyat Rider University in New Jersey thereafter.This spring she was one of two recipients ofthe Rider University Award forDistinguished Teaching and spoke at Rider’sgraduation ceremony to an audience ofapproximately 5,000 people. The followinginformation about Betsy comes from theRider web site.

Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Haywood-Sullivan earned a PhD in accounting fromthe University of Georgia and is both aCertified Public Accountant and a CertifiedManagement Accountant. She came to theRider University department of accountingin 2001, and in 2004 she was promoted tothe rank of assistant professor II.

Dr. Haywood-Sullivan is a versatile instruc-tor. She has taught courses at all levels of thecurriculum from Introduction to Businessfor freshmen to graduate courses for studentsin the Masters of Accountancy program. Shemodels applied learning by demonstrating

challenging accountingprinciples throughreal world examplesthat are accessibleand amusing to herstudents. As exam-ples, her nominatorsmentioned class-room analysis of theproduct costs of pro-ducing potato chipsand baseballs. Hercourses, research,and campus activitiesalso demonstrate Dr.Haywood-Sullivan’scommitment to highethical standards inthe practice and teaching of accounting.

Dr. Haywood-Sullivan’s students praiseher love of teaching, her accessibility, and hergenuine interest in student accomplishments.They appreciate her assistance with numer-ous student accounting and leadershiporganizations, including the Accounting

Society, the Student Chapter of the Instituteof Management Accountants, and OmicronDelta Kappa National Leadership HonorSociety. One student wrote that “she isalways willing to do anything possible toensure the success of her students.” ■

Tull PhD Betsy Haywood-SullivanReceives Major Teaching Award

Director’s Messagecontinued from page 1

Baginski was appointed Associate Dean forAcademic Programs for the Terry Collegeand I was appointed Director of the TullSchool). Thus, although the commitment toexcellence that the Tull School is known forwill not change, some of the faces will bechanging. Two of these new faces havealready arrived in Athens. It is my pleasureto welcome Stacie Laplante and MattWieland to our faculty. Stacie earned herPhD at the University of Washington andwill be teaching corporate tax and introduc-tory tax. Matt earned his PhD at IndianaUniversity and will be teaching financialstatement analysis in the MAcc and MBAprograms. Both Stacie and Matt have excel-lent professional experience, a reputationfor being outstanding teachers, and animpressive research agenda. They are greatadditions to our faculty.

I am pleased to report that our students,faculty, and staff continue to receive

impressive external recognition. The TullSchool continues to be ranked in the top 25undergraduate and graduate accountingprograms by both U. S. News & WorldReport and the Public Accounting Report.Likewise, our students continue theirimpressive performance on the CPA exam.During the past decade, our MAcc gradu-ates ranked sixth in the nation for the high-est percentage of candidates passing allparts of the CPA exam on the first attempt.Our PhD program has also had an outstand-ing year with all three graduates beingplaced at excellent institutions. John Jiangand Isabel Wang accepted positions atMichigan State University and K.C. Rakowaccepted a position at LSU. Congratulationsto all three!

Many of our faculty members have beenrecognized recently for their outstandingcontributions in the classroom. LindaBamber was selected as the Teacher of the

Year for the Terry MBA program, DennyBeresford was recognized as Teacher of theYear for the Executive MBA program, KenGaver was chosen as the OutstandingTeacher of the Year for the Honors program,and Dan Smith and I received the BetaAlpha Psi Undergraduate and GraduateTeaching Awards, respectively.

During the coming year many of you willcome back to campus to recruit our stu-dents, speak to some of our classes, or justto watch the Bulldog football team inaction. I invite you to stop by to see me dur-ing any such visit. We need your supportand your suggestions for continuousimprovement of our already outstanding pro-gram. Even if you are not able to visitAthens in person, feel free to send me anemail message ([email protected]) orcall me (706 542-3772). With your help wewill build upon the legacy of the School andTerry College. ■

Betsy Haywood-Sullivan (right) is shown at the Rider University graduationceremony with University President Mordechai Rozanski and co-awardwinner Diane Casale-Giannola.



HONORSA number of teaching, research, and service awards were

made to Tull faculty in the last few months. Most notable was KenGaver’s receipt of the Lothar Tresp Outstanding Honors ProfessorAward during the Honors Program Banquet in April. Ken wasselected for the award in recognition of his superior performanceand dedication as a teacher in UGA’s Honors Program. He wasalso selected as one of only 14 University of Georgia professorsrecognized in January as an outstanding teacher by the UGAStudent Government Association. Another member of the selectgroup chosen by the SGA asan outstanding teacher wasMark Dawkins, so the TullSchool had about 15% of theUniversity total!

Another very significanthonor went to Tina Carpenter.She was one of ten UGA tenure-track faculty members chosen tobe a Lilly Teaching Fellow for the 2005-06 academic year. Thishighly competitive program provides opportunities for Fellows tosignificantly enhance their professional development as teachingscholars. In addition to giving the Fellows a support system ofboth mentors and peers to help further their development asteachers and researchers, the program provides them with theopportunity to complete an instructional project designed tostrengthen teaching methods in their academic department.Tina’s instructional project will be creating additional “fraud”cases for her forensic accounting course.

Dan Smith received the Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding UndergraduateTeacher Award in April and Ben Ayers was recognized as theOutstanding Graduate Teacher. Linda Bamber received the award forMBA Teacher of the Year. Denny Beresford was selected as the out-standing instructor for the Executive MBA program, class of 2005.

These Tull faculty members were among those namedOutstanding Teachers during the University of Georgia’s annualHonors Day program in the spring: Ben Ayers, Linda Bamber, andDan Smith. Dan also received an Alpha Kappa Psi OutstandingTeaching Award and was recognized by the UGA Career ResourceCenter for Outstanding Mentoring of Accounting Students.

OTHERThis spring, Ben Ayers presented his paper (co-authors C. E.

Lefanowicz and J. R. Robinson) “Capital Gains Taxes andAcquisition Activity: Evidence of the Lock-In Effect,” at theUniversity of Alabama, University of Kentucky, University of NotreDame, and University of Waterloo. Ben also presented a seminaron the effects of tax and financial reporting incentives on corpo-rate acquisitions at the Inaugural KPMG/American TaxationAssociation Doctoral Consortium. His paper (co-authors C. B.Cloyd and J. R. Robinson) “Read My Lips …: Does the MarketBelieve the Tax Rhetoric of Presidential Candidates?” was pub-lished earlier this year in the Journal of Law and Economics.

Linda and Michael Bamber presented a seminar on “PublishingYour Research: Two (Former) Editors’ Perspectives” to account-ing faculty and PhD students at the University of Arkansas.Michael also made a presentation on “Common Pitfalls of NewAuthors and How to Avoid the Traps” at the American Accounting

Association’s Auditing Doctoral Consortium in New Orleans. Lindaspoke on “effective teaching” at the KPMG PhD project in Augustin conjunction with the AAA annual meeting. She also moderateda research session at the AAA meeting on “Motivations forVoluntary Disclosure.”

The New York State Society of CPAs presented Denny Beresfordwith the Max Block Award for his December 2004 CPA Journal arti-cle titled, “Can We Go Back to the Good Old Days?” He also wasselected as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance for2005 by Treasury and Risk Management magazine. In July, the

National Association ofCorporate Directors publishedan extensive interview withDenny in Directors Monthly.

Denny spoke to severalaccounting and general busi-ness audiences including:

Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Roundtable sponsored by the UnitedStates Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC (program chair-man), SEC and Financial Reporting Conference sponsored by theUniversity of Southern California and held in Pasadena, CA, AICPAScholars Leadership Workshop in Peachtree City, GA, Directors’College sponsored by Terry College/National Association ofCorporate Directors (program chairman), and the inaugural TerryCollege/Cushman & Wakefield/KPMG/Hunton & Williams CFORoundtable. At the AAA annual conference in San Francisco hewas a featured luncheon speaker on “AccountingProfessionalism: Do We Get It?” and was a panelist at a sessionon academics becoming members of audit committees.

Tina Carpenter attended the PricewaterhouseCoopersUniversity in Princeton, NJ as the UGA faculty representative inJune and she also presented a paper based on her dissertation,“Audit Team Brainstorming, Partner Influence, and FraudDetection: Implications of SAS No. 99” at the AAA annual meet-ing in San Francisco.

For the seventh straight year, Mark Dawkins coordinated afour-day Georgia High School Residency Program hosted by theGeorgia Society of CPAs and the Terry College on UGA’s campus.The program provides an introduction and overview of the variouscareer opportunities available in the accounting profession, aswell as workshops on career skills testing, technology, etiquetteand resume writing. More than 50 students participated in thisyear’s program. Jackie Hammersley gave an overview of account-ing to the students.

Stacie Laplante presented her paper (co-authors P.Koh andY.Tong) “Accountability and Value Creation Roles of CorporateGovernance” at the annual AAA meeting in San Francisco. In addi-tion, her paper (co-authors M. Hanlon and T. Shevlin) “Evidence onthe Possible Information Loss of Conforming Book Income andTaxable Income” is scheduled to be published in the October issueof the Journal of Law and Economics.

Over the past summer, Stephanie Miller worked at Ernst &Young to gain first hand Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 InternalControls experience and she partnered with the MIS departmentat the Terry College to create a class for the fall that is focusingon Accounting Controls and SOX. ■

FACULTYA C T I V I T I E S



Steve Baginski was about as confident asone could be when he left Illinois StateUniversity for an internship during his senioryear – confident that he would never have tomake a public presentation nor rely on cre-ativity to make it as a public accountant.His was a silent world of textbook prob-lems, and armed with a number 2 lead pen-cil, he could bring those problems to theirknees! (No calculator was allowed; don’tforget, this was the 70’s.) He had prizedpossessions: a job in Chicago with Price-Waterhouse, an apartment on the GoldCoast, and a new blue suit to guarantee hisprofessional manner.

What transpired during that cold Januaryand February of 1979 would rock his world.He learned some valuable lessons about liv-ing in the big city, like “don’t practice ridingthe subway on Sunday and expect it to bethe same experience on Monday.” But whathe learned at work was even more shock-ing. First, communication skill was critical.Training class required him to make oralpresentations, to role-play client/auditorinteractions, and to convert his findingsinto a concise memorandum. Second,unstructured real world problems put a pre-mium on both analytical ability and creativ-ity. These accountant types could think! Infact, he was surprised to find out that manyof the managers in the firm held advanceddegrees. Now confident that he needed topolish his skill set, and always comfortablein an academic environment, Steve decidedto return to Illinois State University toobtain a Masters degree in accounting.

A significant problem Steve faced wasthe need to approach his father to explainthat he was leaving a job to go to school, asequencing that was unheard of in his fami-ly. Steve was raised in a close-knit, extend-ed family of railroaders, coal miners, andcarpenters in Springfield, Illinois. He wasone of the first members of his extendedfamily to attend college. His family life wasloving and supportive, and education wasrevered. However, getting and keeping a jobwas the objective, and the family’s rever-ence of higher education could be explained

by the fact that it led to a higher paying pro-fessional job. Two conditions made Steve’ssales pitch to his father much easier. First,Price Waterhouse promised him a job upongraduation (at higher pay!). Second, andmore telling about what the future wouldbring, Illinois State waived his tuition andpaid him a stipend to teach an introductoryaccounting class.

Imagine the fear streaking through thebody of someone who wished to be in thebackground, now standing in front of anaccounting class filled with students only twoyears younger than him. Although Steve waswell prepared for the task, the blue suit pur-chased with the intent to protect a shy back-room accountant did little to hide the highlyvisible teacher’s shaking hands and voice.Not until a professor told him that what hewas feeling was “excitement, not fear” didSteve begin to overcome it. What helped, ofcourse, was the fact that Steve found teach-ing to be the most rewarding thing he hadever done. He also enjoyed his master’s class-es, especially the one that introduced thekind of path breaking accounting researchthat was being done by PhDs.

Although Steve finished his master’sdegree and headed back to PriceWaterhouse, he could not shake the feel-ings of “excitement” in the classroom andhis desire to be a part of the kind ofresearch that was taking place in account-ing academia. Not long after rejoining thefirm, he decided once again to pursue addi-tional education, and he was admitted tothe PhD program at the University of Illinois.Moving back to academia was not easy. Inaddition to the usual justification that wouldhave to be presented to his mother andfather, he had his wife Lynn to worry about.She had met and married a CPA with a job,apartment, and blue suit. Now she wasfaced with graduate school poverty forthree more years. (At this point in history,accounting program administrators claimedthat a PhD took three years. Lynn was a bitconcerned by the fact that all of the doc-toral students at Illinois looked very old,owned homes, and could not rememberwhen they started. But, that is anotherstory!)

Once again, everyone supported Steve,and almost six years later, he had his PhDand a job at Florida State University wherehe developed a love of college football.

Eleven years later, he would move toIndiana University, where he would stay forsix years, suffering the indignity of being anIndiana Hoosiers football fan. In 2002, hemoved to UGA to accept appointment to theHerbert E. Miller Chair in FinancialAccounting.

Steve has taught financial and manageri-al accounting at all levels since 1980. Atthe time of his UGA appointment, he wasPricewaterhouseCoopers Fellow and Chairof Kelley School of Business DoctoralPrograms at Indiana University. In additionto his permanent appointments, Steve hasalso taught at the University of Illinois,Northeastern University, WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis, the University of St.Galen (Switzerland), the Swiss BankingInstitute at the University of Zurich, and atINSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He haspublished articles in a variety of journalsincluding The Accounting Review, Journal ofAccounting Research, ContemporaryAccounting Research, The Journal of Riskand Insurance, Quarterly Review of Financeand Economics, Review of QuantitativeFinance and Accounting, and Advances inAccounting. His research primarily exam-ines the causes and consequences of vol-untary management disclosures of earningsforecasts, and he also investigates the use-fulness of financial accounting informationin security pricing and risk assessment. Hehas won several teaching awards during hiscareer, including the Doctoral StudentInspiration Award from students at theKelley School.

Since coming to UGA, Steve has taughtin the MAcc, MBA, Executive MBA, anddoctoral programs. He is very impressedwith the quality of UGA students at all lev-els. He is also extremely pleased with hisfaculty colleagues and the commitment ofthe Tull School to high quality research.(Football is also more pleasing than in hisHoosier days, and although UGA basketballhas yet reached the quality to which he isaccustomed, the future looks bright.) Hethinks so highly about the kind of educationone can earn at UGA that his son Drew is afourth year Bulldawg, and his daughterKelly will begin her UGA career this fall. Inhis spare time, Steve enjoys running, bas-ketball, golf, and travel. If you have not fig-ured it out yet, he is also an avid collegefootball and basketball fan. ■

STEVE BAGINSKI

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT



The newest members of the Tull Schoolfaculty are Stacie Laplante and MattWieland. They joined us at the begin-ning of the fall semester after completing theirPhD studies at the University of Washingtonand Indiana University, respectively.

Stacie earlier received a BS in Accountingand an MSBA with an emphasis in Taxationfrom Colorado State University. She is aCPA and worked for KPMG in their Denveroffice for three years as a Tax and ConsultingSenior. After leaving KPMG she spent fiveyears with AT&T as Director of RegulatoryAffairs in San Francisco. Stacie received sev-eral teaching and other awards atWashington, including a Deloitte & ToucheDoctoral Fellowship.

Her dissertation is titled, “Taxes, conser-vatism in financial reporting, and the valuerelevance of accounting data.” Stacie is nowteaching introductory tax and corporate tax

classes. When she is not thinking aboutaccounting and taxes, you will likely findStacie enjoying one of her many favoriteactivities like scuba diving, swimming,cycling, hiking, yoga, or anything else thatallows her to be outdoors.

Matt earned an MBA at Indiana beforecontinuing on for his PhD. Earlier, hereceived a BS in Accounting from TheUniversity of Akron. He is also a CPA andwas a State and Local Tax Consultant forArthur Andersen in Cleveland, Ohio forthree years. Matt also received recognitionfor his teaching while at Indiana and was therecipient of the Chancellor’s Fellowship forfour years.

His dissertation is titled, “Identifyingconsensus analysts’ earnings change forecastswith correct and incorrect signs.” He is nowteaching financial statement analysis classesfor both MBA and MAcc students. Matt

enjoys spending time with his wife, Laura,and playing basketball, golf, and softball.

We hope you will introduce yourself toStacie and Matt the next time you visitAthens. ■

(L-R) Stacie Laplante and Matt Wieland areTull’s newest faculty members coming fromUniversity of Washington and Indiana University,respectively.

(clockwise from top left) (1) Retiring Tull School DirectorSilvia Madeo receives a gift from members of the School’sAdvisory Board, (2) Emeritus Professors Percy Yeargan, HerbMiller, Don Edwards, and Earl Davis, (3) Speaker DougIvestor, (4) Doug Ivestor receives Outstanding Graduateaward from Silvia Madeo.

Stacie Laplante and Matt Wieland Join Faculty

Spring 2005 Accounting Awards Ceremony

4 3

1 2



At this spring’s University-wide commencement ceremony, TravisCanova (BBA and MAcc ’05) was chosen to speak on behalf of the2,000 or so students receiving their diplomas. By all accounts, Travis’remarks were the highlight of the day. In urging his fellow graduatesto “not live a small life,” Travis stated:

“May we remember, in this place of celebration, what is trulyimportant. Not the fact that we come from different places.Not even our majors. What is truly important are the menand women that we have become, men and women who arecapable of dreaming big, who will undoubtedly add value toour families and answer the needs of our communities.”

Travis was selected earlier as the winner of the Rotary FoundationAmbassadorial Scholarship. He will use that scholarship to pursue amaster’s degree in international politics at the University of Wales atAberystwyth.

UGA began recognizing First Honor Graduates in 1978 insteadof designating a graduating senior as valedictorian. Fifty-two suchstudents were recognized at the 2005 spring commencement andthree of those students were accounting majors, all of whom had per-

fect 4.0 grade point averages. They were Laura Mills, LaurenSaunders and Wes Smith. Laura will continue her graduate studiesat Auburn University after finishing an internship with Ernst &Young this summer. Lauren and Wes are both in the Five-Year pro-gram. Wes completed an internship with KPMG in Spring 2005 andwill continue his studies in the audit field. Lauren will graduate inDecember 2005 with her MAcc and begin work at Dixon-Hughes.

Again this year the School of Accounting was very well represent-ed among the Terry College 2007 Class of Leadership Scholars.Among the 30 rising Juniors selected for the program were the fol-lowing accounting majors: Lindsay Calhoun, Hunter Fleetwood,John Gocke, Josh Reser, and Scott Voigt. Accounting majors com-prise 17% of the Leadership Scholars, which is about twice the levelof accounting majors among the total Terry College undergraduatepopulation.

The Spring 2005 Accounting Awards Ceremony was held in lateApril in connection with Beta Alpha Psi’s last meeting for the schoolyear. Following an excellent presentation by guest speaker DougIvestor, Beta Alpha Psi advisor Dan Smith presided over the award-ing of thousands of dollars of scholarship awards to outstanding stu-dents. The winners were as follows:

■ Meli Arant Memorial Scholarship Megan Mamalakis

■ Paula Denise Baughtman Memorial ScholarshipMay Thompson

■ Malcolm Byron Davis Memorial Scholarship Heather Ripley

■ Lisa L. Graves Memorial Scholarship Ania Flint

■ James David Holtz Memorial Scholarship Jessica Smith

■ Daniel C. Langford Memorial Scholarship Christy Boyd

■ Ceasare & Mary Laverne Maestri Scholarships Brendan Thomas and Ashley Naughton

■ J. M. Tull School of AccountingAcademic Excellence Awards Jason Hale, Adam Hutchins, Cole Johnson, Megan Murphy, Winters Richwine, Amy Story, Misty Thurman, and Benny Yee

■ Accounting 2101 Teaching Assistant Awards Andy Brown, Maya Egosi, Lindsay Foreman, Jennifer Lollis, Tony Pritchett, Stephen Sonenshine, and Tyler Reams

■ Becker CPA Review Scholarships Lisa Owens and Jon Powell

■ Georgia Society of CPA’s Excellence Award Program Laura Mills, Lauren Saunders

and Wes Smith■ Bennett Thrasher Award

Sabrina Barnes■ Deloitte & Touche Outstanding

Junior Award Laura Byars

■ Dixon Hughes Scholarship Laura Griffin

■ Elliot Davis Accounting Award Kelly Mattox

■ Ernst & Young Tax Research Award Sonia Dowla

■ Federation of Schools of AccountancyStudent Achievement Award Tony Pritchett

■ Flexible Products Award Sonia Dowla

■ Frazier & Deeter Accounting Award Anna Griffith

■ Grant Thornton Leadership Award Kathryn Boyer

■ Habif Arogeti & Wynne Scholarship in honor of Merrill D. Wynne Eric Gabbai

■ KPMG Beta Alpha Psi Leadership Awards May Thompson and Leah Heald

■ Mauldin & Jenkins Scholarship Sinead Lynch

■ Moore Colson Accounting Achievement Award Anne Lane

■ Moore Stephens Tiller Scholarship Lyndie Miller

■ Nichols Cauley & Associates Award Ashley Conner

■ Porter Keadle Moore Scholarship in honor of Dennis R. Beresford Leah Heald

■ PricewaterhouseCoopers Scholarship Brian Staniszewski

■ Reznick Group Award Hartley Burt

■ Tauber & Balser Award Wes Smith

■ Beta Alpha Psi Advisor’s Award Mary Robinson

The following additional awards wereannounced separately:■ Financial Executives

International Scholar Laura Griffin

■ Blue Key Honor Society Ilya Gokhman and Laura Mills

■ Correct Craft Scholarship Todd Culpepper

■ Georgia Rotary Student Program Oslo Scholarship Sonia Dowla

■ Institute of Management Accounting Scholarship Jay Yuan

■ Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship Travis Canova

■ Cecil Walker Family Scholarship Drew Williams

2005 Student Accounting Awards



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By Linda Bamber

It’s not unusual for a graduate of the TullSchool of Accounting’s master’s pro-gram to become a practitioner. It’s notunusual for a graduate of the Tull School’sPhD program to become an academic. Onthe other hand, it’s not typical for one of ourgraduates to become an accounting regula-tor, and it is even less typical for a graduateto become an accounting standard-setter.But one of our graduates has worn all fourhats — accounting practitioner, academic,regulator, and standard-setter!

Meet one-woman accounting SWATteam, Dr. Youngsoon Cheon, who earnedher MAcc from the Tull School in 1990, andthen graduated with her PhD in 1994. Onlythe eighth woman to pass the Korean CPAExam, Youngsoon worked in practice onthe audit staff of Coopers & Lybrand inSeoul, before traveling to the U.S. to enterour M.Acc. program. While in Athens,Youngsoon was awarded the Gold Medal forher first-place performance in the state ofGeorgia on the U.S. CPA exam. Upon earn-ing her PhD, Youngsoon served on theaccounting faculty at Baruch College in NewYork City, where she became a popularteacher and published academic research inthe leading scholarly accounting journals.

Youngsoon returned to Korea when shereceived an invitation to join the KoreanSecurities and Exchange Commission. Atthe time, the SEC functioned as both stan-dard-setter and regulator, although thestandard-setting function has since split offas the Korean Accounting Standards Board.At the SEC, Youngsoon headed a teamcharged with setting accounting standardsfor the most hotly contested accountingissue in Korea – the accounting for businesscombinations, consolidations, and the pres-entation of combined financial statements.In addition to the usual hot-button issuessurrounding the accounting for businesscombinations, Korean standard-setters andregulators also faced the unique challenge ofdeciding how to report combined financialstatements for chaebol – conglomerates ofmany companies who own shares in eachother, resulting in highly complex inter-

twined ownership structures. Hyundai,Samsung, LG, Daewoo, and Kia are some ofthe largest chaebol. Because the standardsfor combined financial statements for thesechaebol was the most significant issue facingKorean accounting bodies, Youngsoon wasalso charged with heading up another teamto develop a conceptual framework forKorean accounting standards!

After several years at the SEC, Youngsoon

decided it was time to return to the class-room to share with students her newly deep-ened understanding of cutting-edge finan-cial accounting issues. She now teachesfinancial accounting at Chung AngUniversity, where she has served as depart-ment head and has also received theOutstanding Faculty Award for her contri-butions to research, teaching, and communi-ty service. Youngsoon also received awardsfrom the Korean Institute of CPAs for herresearch on firms that early-adopt newaccounting standards, and from the KoreanAccounting Association for her research onmanagers’ voluntary earnings-related disclo-sures. But she hasn’t given up her standard-setting hat, as she serves on the AdvisoryCouncil to the Korean AccountingStandards Board. Nor has she given up herpractitioner hat. Youngsoon was recentlynamed to the Board of Directors ofKookmin Bank, the largest bank in Korea.As chair of the Audit Committee forKookmin, her latest challenge is getting thebank ready to implement Section 404 of theSarbanes-Oxley Act. Kookmin is cross-listedon the New York Stock Exchange, and for-eign-issuers have only until 2006 to imple-

ment the SOX requirements. Youngsoonsays that since “SOX was something new toKookmin, the biggest challenge in imple-menting Section 404 has been to changepeople’s mindsets and help them adapt tothe new environment.”

When Youngsoon misses her time at theUniversity of Georgia, she has plenty of col-leagues nearby with whom she can remi-nisce. Dr. Manwoo Lee, who graduated

from the Tull School’s PhD program in1987, serves on the faculty of KoreaUniversity. One of Korea’s leading expertson financial accounting, Dr. Lee has advisedthe Korean government’s Ministry ofFinance and Economy and its Fair TradeCommission, the Korea Stock Exchange,and he has served on the boards of several ofthe largest organizations in Korea, includingHyundai and LG. Dr. Gwanghoon Park,another graduate of the Tull School PhDprogram, teaches accounting at theUniversity of Seoul, and he also shares hisaccounting expertise by helping the Koreangovernment evaluate institutions it has fund-ed. Finally Dr. Gil Lee, another MAcc andPhD graduate, is on the faculty at nearbyDankook University, where he teaches andperforms research on auditing and internalcontrols. ■

ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT

YoungsoonCheon

www.terry.uga.edufor the latest news

and information from Terry.



UGA Hosts Accounting Research ConferenceThe Tull School of Accounting hosted this year’s Southeast

Summer Accounting Research Conference on Friday, July 15.The annual conference rotates among Emory University, GeorgiaState University, Georgia Tech, and the University of Georgia,with faculty and PhD students typically attending from DukeUniversity and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This year the Tull School hosted the conference at the newTerry Executive Education Center in Buckhead, an outstandingfacility for such a gathering. Michael Bamber did a great job oforganizing the conference. There were 52 attendees, and allconsidered the conference a success.

One goal of the conference is to provide opportunities for rel-atively new faculty members to present and receive commentson their research. There were six paper presentations, includingpresentations by UGA accounting faculty Eric Yeung and JackieHammersley on (i) corporate governance and monitoring of thechief financial officer and (ii) the stock market’s reaction tofirms’ internal control weakness disclosures under theSarbanes-Oxley Act, respectively. Other topics included howinvestors use analyst forecasts; a new measure of earningsquality; the role of circular causality in internal control evalua-tion; and the effect of organizational reporting structure onbudgeting effectiveness. ■

Voynich Family Scholarship is Established

The photo above shows members of the Voynich family at our annualawards dinner in April. Outgoing Director of the School of AccountingSilvia Madeo used this occasion to announce the Voynich Family GraduateScholarship. The family’s generous contribution will provide an annualscholarship for “exceptional students with strong academic credentialsenrolled in the Doctoral program in Accounting.” In subsequent years ifthe fund balance grows sufficiently, an additional award may be made toa Masters of Accountancy student pursuing an emphasis in InternationalStudies.Mike, Greg, and Scott Voynich are all graduates of the Tull School whohave been very successful in their accounting careers. Mike is recentlyretired from Coca-Cola as the former Director of International Tax. Gregwho is also a graduate of the University of Georgia Law School, is a part-ner and head of the tax department at Robinson, Grimes & Co inColumbus, GA, and Scott is Managing Partner of Robinson, Grimes & Co.Last year Scott completed a term as Chairman of the American Instituteof CPAs. Their father, Dr. John Voynich (also pictured) taught at the TerryCollege of Business prior to becoming the first Dean of the ColumbusState University Business School.

What’s New With You?What are you doing and what’s “news” with you? Please take a fewmoments to fill in this form and return to us so we can keep yourclassmates informed of your activities. If you wish, please attach aseparate sheet with more information. Or you can email:[email protected].

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J.M SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING

Tull School UpdateP. George Benson Dean,

Terry College of BusinessBen Ayers Director,

Tull School of AccountingDenny Beresford EditorPatti Hoyt Co-EditorChris Taylor Art Director

THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIABrooks Hall • Athens, Georgia

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F 2005 VOLUME 6, N 2 Ben Ayers is Tull Director Tmedia.terry.uga.edu/documents/accounting/tull_fall_2005.pdf · 2007. 8. 28. · Ben Ayers is Tull Director Steve Baginski Becomes