The Department of Accounting organized the following three distinguished lectures during the 2019-20 academic year.
“What is the SASB and Why Should You Care?”
Robert Hirth, senior managing director at Protiviti and co-vice chair of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
October 16, 2019
The Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability welcomed Robert Hirth as its Dreier Chair in Accounting Ethics Distinguished Speaker. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has developed a complete set of 77 industry standards, providing globally applicable industry-specific standards that identify the minimal set of financially material sustainability topics and their associated metrics for the typical company in an industry. Mr. Hirth discussed the sustainability evolution to ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) reporting and why this is important to investors from a risk and valuation perspective. His presentation explained how corporate reporting has expanded to include this information and gave examples of companies doing this well, including those getting third party assurance on their information. Watch video
“Innovating the Future of Audit”
Andrea Schulz, audit senior manager in KPMG’s Silicon Valley Office
October 23, 2019
Artificial intelligence, blockchain, data analytics, machine learning, and robotic process automation are trending buzzwords at the moment, but what do they mean for auditors and accountants? The Paul A. Grosch Lecture Series welcomed Andrea Schulz who explored the emerging technologies that are poised to transform the profession. With over 14 years of experience, Andrea’s clients have ranged from emerging growth to publicly traded technology companies. Since 2014, she has led the deployment of KPMG’s data and analytics capabilities throughout audits in the Bay Area. Watch video
“Busting the Myths: How Legislation, Regulation and Litigation Have Made Classic Big 4 Business Assumptions Obsolete”
Francine McKenna, writer and commentator
March 2, 2020
The Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability welcomed Francine McKenna as its Dreier Chair in Accounting Ethics Distinguished Speaker. Francine’s remarks focused on modernizing perceptions of some of the common global audit firm business model myths perpetuated by the accounting industry, regulators, academics, judges, business leaders and the business media. Not knowing the facts is an obstacle to professionalism, serving the true client—investors, and promoting ethical capital markets. Francine is a prolific writer and commentator on the accounting, audit and corporate governance issues affecting public and pre-IPO private companies. Since 2006, she has been an investigative reporter and feature writer for publications including Dow Jones MarketWatch, Forbes, American Banker, Financial Times, Accounting Today, and Boston Review. You may also know her writing from her blog, reTheAuditors.com. Watch video
