The Ledger

By Amber Walkowiak
From McCombs TODAY

Eric Israel, managing director of forensic and global sustainability services for KPMG, gave a presentation Oct. 6 on how sustainability relates to business value. His talk was part of the MPA Distinguished Speaker Lyceum.

According to Israel, sustainability plays a large role in a company’s value and its outlook for the future.

Israel listed the Carbon Disclosure Project is one example of how important sustainability practices and plans are to investors. The project is sponsored by financial investors and asks Fortune 500 companies around the world to report on their carbon emissions. The investors then use these reports to determine in which companies they will make long-term investments.

Israel stressed that sustainability is not merely compliance with the laws. He argued that sustainability should look beyond the minimums of compliance and plan for the future.

He also noted that sustainability means different things for different companies. For a flooring company, sustainability might include a flooring recycling program. For clothing manufacturers, sustainability might include monitoring the production of their products and ensuring that the plants abide by labor laws as well as environmental regulations.

Israel went on to say that sustainability is about efficiency and competitiveness, regardless of what business you are in. Read More…

Florence Atiase, a lecturer in the Department of Accounting, has received the Texas Society of CPAs’ (TSCPA) Outstanding Accounting Educator Award for 2009. The award honors those who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and have distinguished themselves through active service to the accounting profession.

Atiase fits the profile perfectly. Since joining the McCombs faculty in 1993, she has taught a variety of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including introductory financial and managerial accounting, intermediate financial accounting and financial statement analysis.

Urton Anderson, professor and chair of the Department of Accounting, said, “Florence is truly an outstanding member of the accounting profession who has done much to pass on the values of the profession to a new generation of CPAs.”
 
Her dedication as a teacher is reflected in her students’ comments on her teaching evaluations. “She explains things really well,” one student wrote, “making a very difficult subject accessible to all students.”  Other comments characterize her as “a hard but a compassionate and dedicated teacher” and “one of the best professors I have had at UT so far.”

In 2001, Atiase received the President’s Service Award in appreciation for exceptional dedication and service to the TSCPA’s Austin chapter. In 2007 she also received the CPA of the Year – Industry, Government and Education award from the Austin CPA Chapter of the TSCPA.

Atiase has done a lot of work to promote diversity, both within the McCombs community and the accounting profession.  She serves as a member of the TSCPA’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee and as faculty advisor to the University chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. Since 1994, she has been the faculty coordinator/instructor and facilitator of the McCombs Accounting Career Awareness Program summer camp for underrepresented high school students interested in a career in accounting. In recent years, 80 to 100 percent of former ACAP participants have enrolled as University of Texas business majors.

Atiase joins former McCombs TSCPA Outstanding Educator Award winners Professors Anna Flower, Michael Granof, Ray Sommerfeld and Ed Summers.

By Cory Leahy
From the McCombs TODAY blog

Southwest Airlines Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly, BBA ‘77, waxed philosophic about leadership and his experiences in the top spot at SWA during a conversation with Professor George Gau September 24. Ethical leadership was the theme of the event, the first of three McCombs Leadership Forums planned for this semester.Kelly emphasized how important caring for people is at the airline he has run since 2004 when he became CEO. In 2008 he became chairman, following the retirement of founder Herb Kelleher.

“Southwest Airlines is family-like, which implies love,” he said. The pervasiveness of this warm corporate culture is even captured in its stock ticker symbol: LUV.

As the company’s leader, Kelly said he strives to balance three important areas of focus for the company: low cost, customer service and a focus on people. He acknowledged that the strong customer service culture was deeply embedded when he arrived at SWA in 1985.

“All good stories about Southwest Airlines are because of an interaction someone had with one of our people. We share stories [about customer service triumphs] and celebrate those events,” he said. “They happen over and over.”

Communication is a key piece of being a leader, he said. Kelly, who previously served as CFO, is an accountant by training. When he became chairman and CEO, he said he found it to be very different than being a financial technician.

“God gave us two ears and one mouth,” he said, noting that communication is largely about listening. “Leaders need to know when to listen and respond.”

Despite being the only profitable airline since its inception in 1972, SWA has experienced the global economic downturn during the past several months. But Kelly is circumspect. “To focus on great profits only isn’t sustainable,” he said, while a focus on good service, efficiencies (such as having only one type of aircraft in the entire Southwest Airlines fleet) and safety will lead to profits. Read More…

From McCombs TODAY

Robert Kueppers, deputy CEO of Deloitte LLP, talked about the future of auditing at the Sept. 16 meeting of the MPA Distinguished Speaker Lyceum.

In a speech titled “Accounting and Auditing: Implications of the Current Environment,” Kueppers told students “You’ll never learn anything from an audit that goes perfectly.” He added that he’s seen his fair share of imperfect audits, having worked with Enron, WorldCom and Fannie Mae, among others.

Kueppers highlighted what he sees as the three big issues facing public company auditing:

• The significance of professional judgment and professional skepticism.
• The effectiveness of the financial reporting model and the value of the audit.
• The inevitability of continued globalization.

According to Kueppers, auditors have to make professional decisions every day just in determining what to look at and how much time to spend on it, and they always have to keep their eye out for red flags.

“Professional skepticism is the essence of good auditing,” said Kueppers. ”It’s not about keeping the client happy. It’s about making sure you’re doing your job.”

Kueppers also said that the value of auditing will be questioned over time as it has been in the past, but that the need for professional auditing will never go away.

And as for globalization, he predicts that implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is inevitable in the United States. He cites the fact that auditors in the U.S. already have to abide by IFRS if they are auditing the U.S. branch of companies that are based out of foreign countries such as Japan, Mexico or Canada.

However, he stressed to students not to worry about their education in non-IFRS auditing. “Everything you’re learning now is all transferable,” said Kueppers. “The fundamentals aren’t going to change. But at some point within the first five years of your work life…IFRS will be introduced, and at that time you’ll get what you need.”

BP has awarded Nathan Rice, MPA ‘10, a BP fellowship in the amount of $10,000. The competitive award is specifically for MPA students with an interest in exploring a career in the energy industry.

A Lake Charles, LA native, Nathan was a full-time tax intern at McElroy, Quirk & Burch CPAs in spring 2009. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA in 2008. He was also president of Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for Financial Information students and professionals, from 2006-08. Nathan is studying in dual academic tracks in the MPA program: Financial Reporting & Assurance/Managerial Accounting & Control. His cross-cultural experiences include extensive travel throughout Southeast Asia and Israel.