Washington, D.C., May 10, 2007 – LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant today announced the selection of Stephen Brown, William R. Kinney, Jr., and K. Ramesh as Academic Accounting Fellows for one-year terms beginning this summer.
Academic Accounting Fellows serve as research resources for Commission staff by interpreting and communicating research materials as they relate to the SEC. In addition, Academic Accounting Fellows have been assigned to ongoing projects in the Chief Accountant’s office that include rulemaking, serving as a liaison with the professional accounting standards-setting bodies, and consulting with registrants on accounting, auditing, independence and reporting matters.
Mr. Brown is an Assistant Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, where he has taught since receiving his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2000. His research focuses on financial accounting issues, primarily the causes and consequences of managerial choices related to financial accounting matters. His studies examine how firms’ stakeholders respond to management’s chosen disclosures of financial accounting information. Mr. Brown’s research is published in top accounting journals including the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Review of Accounting Studies. He also holds a B.A. and M.A. in Engineering Science and Economics from the University of Oxford. While working for Arthur Andersen & Co before entering academia, he qualified in the UK as a Chartered Accountant and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
Mr. Kinney is a graduate of the undergraduate and masters accounting programs at Oklahoma State University. He earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1968. Since 1988, Mr. Kinney has held the Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Regents Chair in Business and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Auditing Fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin. He is author of more than 50 articles in numerous academic journals and has served as editor of the Accounting Review. Among the many awards Mr. Kinney has received are the Wildman Award Medal and the AICPA-AAA Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature award. His contributions as an educator have been recognized by the AAA, the AAA’s Auditing Section and the AICPA. Mr. Kinney has served on the AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council for the FASB, and he presently serves as a public member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.
Mr. Ramesh is a Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems and a Plante & Moran Faculty Fellow at Michigan State University, where he earned his Ph.D. and currently teaches a masters level course on corporate governance and a Ph.D. seminar on capital markets. Previously, Mr. Ramesh was Vice President at two leading economic consulting firms, Analysis Group, Inc. and Charles River Associates, Inc. He also has held faculty appointments at Northwestern University, University of Rochester, and Penn State. Mr. Ramesh’s research has examined the role of accounting information in firm valuation, the valuation implications of fair value disclosures, the determinants of banks’ choice of accounting methods, and design of credit agreements. His current research focuses on trends in corporate disclosures, the role of capital market information intermediaries, and issues relating to SEC regulation. Mr. Ramesh has published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Accounting & Economics and the Journal of Finance. He was a member of the Editorial Advisory and Review Board of the Accounting Review and the AAA’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee.
Mr. Brown, Mr. Kinney and Mr. Ramesh will replace three current Academic Accounting Fellows. Tom Noland will return to Georgia Southern University, and David Plumlee and Marlene Plumlee will return to University of Utah.
