I am excited to begin my tenure as chair of the LMU Department of Accounting. I would like to start by thanking Larry Kalbers for his incredible leadership and service as chair over the past four years. He is a great colleague, mentor and friend.
2018-2019 was another strong year for LMU Accounting. The annual Accounting Society Spring Banquet was a huge success with 29 students awarded scholarships totaling $246,000. These scholarships were made possible by the generous support of LMU alumni, firms, parents and friends. We recognized Michael Good ’96 as Accounting Alumnus of the Year – read more about his accomplishments in this newsletter. I would like to thank Professor Scott Delanty for his leadership and service as faculty moderator of the Accounting Society for the past four years and am pleased to welcome Professor James Plečnik into this role.
LMU Accounting continues to earn national recognition. The program is currently ranked #20 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 graduate rankings.
Our students are in demand and recruited by the top accounting firms in Los Angeles and across the U.S. In fact, 90% of our students find full-time jobs less than three months after graduating, and 60-70% have internships in accounting.
Our Accounting Advisory Board (AAB) had another active year providing guidance and support to the accounting program. I want to thank all members of the AAB for their participation and valuable input. The AAB’s advice and engagement resulted in additional improvements in our curriculum and increased interaction between accounting students and practicing professionals. I want to give a special thanks to Michael Good for his dynamic leadership as chair of the AAB.
I am grateful to the accounting faculty for their hard work and commitment to our students through teaching, advising and interacting with representatives from the accounting firms. Many of our faculty members are actively engaged in scholarship, which provides additional insights to our students and increases the intellectual capital and reputation of the department.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Rosemary Kim on her promotion to associate professor with tenure. I am also pleased to announce that Tony Menendez has joined the accounting faculty to teach auditing and fraud examination, which you can read more about in this newsletter.
Finally, I want to thank all of our loyal alumni, friends and recruiters. The success of LMU Accounting is in no small part a result of the incredible support we receive from our many stakeholders. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how to get involved, please contact me at 310.338.5716 or laurel.franzen@lmu.edu.
We look forward to another successful year for LMU Accounting!
Laurel Franzen, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Accounting
